Match date: 23 March 2014

Before the match started, Real Madrid were top of the table in La Liga, with Barcelona behind Atletico Madrid in third. While Los Blancos’ season under new manager, Carlo Ancelotti, has deemed a success and a breath of fresh air at this point compared to the reign of Jose Mourinho, Tata Martino has certainly found it much more difficult to win over the Barcelona supporters and their want for Martino to be more like Guardiola than make his own way.

Earlier this season, at the Camp Nou, a match Barcelona won 2-1, Ancelotti played Sergio Ramos in a holding midfield role to try to keep the influence of Messi to a minimum. This time out, Ramos reverted to centre back, and Ancelotti opted to play Alonso in a holding role with Modric and Di Maria in front of him.

Martino choose to start Neymar rather than Pedro or Alexis Sanchez, as well as Cesc Fabregas.

Open First Half

El Clasico matches are often cagey affairs. Barcelona always keep the ball well throughout and Real Madrid look to take their opportunities. Under Jose Mourinho, Real looked to press Barcelona high up the pitch in his first few matches with little success, before looking to keep his players a bit further back and make it harder for Barcelona to pass into the midfield, which was more effective.

In this match, however, both sides were very open. Barcelona still edged possession, but played much quicker into the final third and did not possess and look to recycle the ball often as they usually would when in the final third of the field. Their best chances came when the likes of Neymar and Iniesta were able to break the Real Madrid back line while Barcelona were either just entering the final third or still in the middle third of the pitch. Despite Barcelona’s possession, it was Real Madrid that dictated the match, making it be played at a very high tempo and very open. Below, you can see Barcelona’s created chances from the middle third and just how direct Real Madrid were in their passing, with the centre of the middle third barely played through as Ronaldo and Bale gave Real Madrid pace in behind and Di Maria drifted wide.

Angel Di Maria

The Argentine international had possibly his best ever half for Real Madrid. Aside from the fact that he assisted both of Benzema’s first half goals, he was quick with the ball in midfield, able to beat Barcelona’s attempts to tackle, and read the game very well. Throughout the season, Ancelotti has played him as one of the midfielders in a 4-3-3, whereas under Mourinho he was a winger opposite Ronaldo in a 4-2-3-1. Despite being one of the three-man midfield, Di Maria’s best moments came when he occupied the empty space in the wide left areas of Real Madrid’s attacks, in something of a false/central winger role.

Because of Ronaldo’s positioning in the match, where he played just off of Benzema in an inside forward role, Ronaldo dragged Dani Alves inside with him, which allowed the whole side of the pitch to open up. Marcelo was pinned back by the threat of Neymar, who rarely came back to help defend, and so Di Maria took the opportunity to use the space and did so very well. With was given a considerable amount of time on the ball for both of the crosses that Benzema was able to score with.

The problem for Barcelona was the uncertainty of who was meant to pick him up when he drifted wide. Neymar was usually Barcelona’s vertical outlet and did well keeping Marcelo back. Alves was occupied by Ronaldo drifting inside and needed to help Mascherano, who was playing as the right centre back, as opposed to Pique, because of Ronaldo’s presence in that central area of the pitch. This meant that Xavi or Busquets were responsible for Di Maria’s movement, but neither left their central area to deal with the threat. On Benzema’s first goal, Alves was getting out to close down Di Maria, but was not quick enough and on Benzema’s second goal, Xavi was slow in the tracking Di Maria’s run, allowing him another free cross into the Barcelona penalty area.

Messi and Real’s (Lack of) Plan

Messi now has the most goals in El Clasico, setting the mark with his late goal in the first half. Throughout his time playing in El Clasico, Real Madrid have tried numerous plans to keep the Argentine from having a considerable influence on the match. There have been times when Pepe has been deployed as a central defensive midfielder, with the sole task of making Messi uncomfortable and stopping him from getting involved in build up play in the middle third of the pitch. Earlier in the year Sergio Ramos had an incredibly poor performance against Messi in a central defensive midfielder role, failing to even attempt a tackle, before being subbed off at half time. Perhaps, the best defensive display against Messi was Xabi Alonso’s in the Copa del Rey last year as he consistently looked for Messi and blocked the passing lanes to the Argentine well throughout the match.

On this night, however, Ancelotti seemed to have no plan in dealing with Messi in particular. The Barcelona number 10 was deployed by Tata Martino in his favoured false 9 role, dropping into midfield and looking to play in Neymar behind the Real Madrid back line when the opportunity arose throughout an open first half. He was given an incredible amount of space in the midfield with Alonso, despite being the deepest midfielder, not performing his defensive duties well enough. Below, you can see Messi picking the ball up very early on in the match, with a huge amount of space to run into.

In a match of this magnitude, it was certainly surprising that Ancelotti opted to play without a true defensive midfielder, or at least someone that would sit next to Alonso to take defensive responsibility, such as Khedira (who is hurt) or Illarramendi. Without that security, Alonso struggled both with and without the ball, as he attempted just 36 passes and completed just one of his six attempted tackles.

Alonso tried to support Modric and Di Maria in their pressing of Barcelona further up the pitch, but that left a big hole for Messi to receive the ball in and you can see that most of the passes he did receive were in that hole behind Alonso and the Real Madrid back four. At times, Sergio Ramos would step out to try to intercept or make it difficult for Messi to turn with the ball, but the Argentine was able to pick out his passes well as he looked to play Neymar in behind the Madrid back line and was able to draw players to him before the field opened up for Iniesta prior to Spaniard’s goal.

Second Half, Red Card

The second half looked as though it could have continued the trends of the first half; an open match in which Barcelona were able to edge possession, but which saw Real Madrid dictate a fast paced match. In the opening ten minutes, Ronaldo was awarded a penalty, despite initial contact occurring outside of the box. The major change in the match came when Sergio Ramos was sent off for denying Neymar a goal scoring opportunity and the resulting penalty. Regardless of whether or not it was a red card, it forced Ancelotti to bring off Benzema and replace him with Raphael Varane and move Real Madrid to a 4-4-¼-3-2, with Bale, who had a very quiet match, high up the pitch in support of Ronaldo. As he did for much of the first half, Di Maria played on the left, though his influence on the match was not as great as it was in the first half.

Martino was quick to react to the situation in terms of making a substitution, however his first change was almost like-for-like, bringing on Pedro for Neymar. It was not until the 84th minute that he withdrew a midfield player, Fabregas, and replaced him with a more attacking player in Alexis Sanchez, giving Barcelona more of a 4-3-3 look than an asymmetrical 4-4-2. Both Pedro and Sanchez’s introductions were important. Pedro created more space for Alves to get forward by pinching inside and Alves hit the post, prior to Barcelona getting their fourth. Sanchez, on the left side of the attack, stretched the field and allowed Iniesta more room to run into between Pepe and Carvajal, which won him a penalty to win the match.

Conclusion

A good display of football from both sides, determined by the movement of the players on the pitch, mostly Di Maria and Messi, who both used the space given to them well.

As with most El Clasico matches, there will be controversy about what was and what wasn’t a penalty, but following Ramos’ dismissal, another talking point, Barcelona were able to dictate proceedings.

With the win, Barcelona are certainly back in the race of the league title, as they are now just one point back from Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid.