Arsene Wenger stated yesterday’s El Clasico was “males towards boys” and felt Barcelona had been ineffective at each ends of the pitch.
Madrid ran out 2-1 winners on the Santiago Bernabeu because of targets from Kylian Mbappe and Jude Bellingham both aspect of a Fermin Lopez leveller.
However, in reality, it may have been much more emphatic. Mbappe had two targets disallowed, Bellingham one, Mbappe missed a penalty whereas the house aspect additionally had an early spot-kick overturned after Lamine Yamal and Vinicius Jr clashed within the field.
Barca’s central defensive pairing of Eric Garcia and Pau Cubarsi struggled with Mbappe all afternoon and the champions badly missed the bodily presence of the injured Robert Lewandowski in assault.
Males towards boys – Wenger
Former Arsenal boss Wenger, who analysed the sport for beIN Sports activities stated: “El Clasico was a bit like a duel of males towards boys. Actual Madrid’s defence was a lot stronger than Barcelona’s.
“In assault, Madrid at all times regarded able to scoring, whereas Barcelona appeared ineffective. That they had a variety of possession, however they by no means actually regarded able to scoring.”
Whereas a lot of the post-match focus centred on the behaviour of Vinicius Jr and the general response of the Madrid gamers in direction of Lamine Yamal, Barca boss Hansi Flick, who needed to watch the match from the stands because of a one-game suspension, can have been alarmed by his aspect’s toothless show.
Araujo – we’re unhappy
Defender Ronald Araujo, who began on the bench however got here on after 74 minutes for the outmatched Garcia, admitted there was loads for the defending champions to work on.
He stated: “We’re unhappy to lose the Clasico. There are issues to appropriate and there’s a lot of the season left.
“I fear about profitable and it’s important to appropriate and proceed. We’ve got to imagine in what they [the coaching staff] inform us, with a variety of confidence and to observe.”
The excellent news for Barca is that they have a full week off to get to work on the coaching pitch earlier than their subsequent sport towards Elche on Sunday.
