Match date: 22 March 2015

Barcelona have been in excellent form in that few months as they progressed in the Champions League with a 1-0 win over Manchester City last Wednesday and have climbed to first place in La Liga in those few months. Against Real Madrid, Luis Enrique continued with the starting XI that beat Manchester City, except for Ter Stegen with Claudio Bravo coming in for league matches.

Real Madrid, however, have struggled in the last few months. They progressed in the Champions League against Schalke, but that was more because of the two away goals they scored against the German side with cracks showing in the second leg of the tie as Schalke won 4-3. Ancelotti made just one change to the side that won against Levante in their last league outing with Kroos coming in for Lucas Silva.

Real Madrid Limit Messi, Struggle with Set Pieces

Messi had a fantastic game against Manchester City in Barcelona’s last match with so much of his success coming from the space that Manchester City allowed Barcelona to have. Manchester City’s back four were very deep, while the rest of the team were high up the field looking to win the ball back, opening up a huge space in midfield that Messi was able to pick up the ball in and run at the Manchester City defense. Real Madrid, however, looked to play a higher line, squeezing the midfield and forcing Messi to stay out wide where Marcelo, Isco, and Kroos all looked to close down the space that the Argentine could play into. With Neymar and Messi stretching the field all the way to the touchlines on their respective sides, Barcelona had a hard time working the ball from one side to another, especially when they initially played into Messi and Real Madrid reacted with their pressing. Below you can see Barcelona wide men stretching the field and the annotated movements of Marcelo and Isco when the ball moved to Messi.

Real Madrid’s back four played relatively high up the pitch, which limited Messi to a pocket of space that he could play in and ultimately Barcelona looked to play to the opposite to Neymar’s feet or to Suarez’s feet through the middle.

The Neymar, Suarez duo forced Real Madrid back and won a number of free kicks, which Barcelona were very dangerous as it were. Barcelona’s first goal was scored from a set piece, with Mathieu getting free to get on the end of a Messi free kick from the left side Real Madrid’s penalty area. Barcelona almost scored from another set piece, this time a corner that was not well defended by Real Madrid only for Neymar to control the ball right into Casillas from a Suarez shot/cross. Real Madrid were able to counter quickly from this effort and score the equaliser.

Benzema, Kroos Key

With Ronaldo and Bale the usual recipients of praise and criticism from the media and supporters, Benzema often finds himself on the periphery, but it was the Frenchman that was Real Madrid’s best attacking player on the night. Benzema was constantly on the move for his side. He provided a forward option as often as he could, whether that meant dropping a bit deeper into the space that Mascherano was meant to position himself in or pulling into the wide areas on the ball side. Pique and Mathieu did not seem to know whether to follow the striker when he dropped deep, assuming Mascherano would pick him up, or follow him out wide, assuming that the full backs would pick him up and that it meant Real Madrid’s winger would be looking to dart inside, something that Ronaldo always does well. His movement was key to Real Madrid’s periods of dominance and created some excellent chances for his side, including the assist for Ronaldo, who he setup earlier only for the ball to come off the crossbar.

The other key element to Real Madrid’s good play was Toni Kroos. The German was playing in the holding role, with Isco and Modric ahead of him, and was given a good amount of time on the ball. Benzema did well to occupy Mascherano which then saw Rakitic have to find Isco and Iniesta to find Modric, leaving Kroos with space to get on the ball and dictate Real Madrid’s forward play. When Kroos got on the ball, one of usually Iniesta or Mascherano would move to close him down, which would leave Benzema or Modric open, with the Croatian Kroos’ most common target. With Iniesta moving forward, Modric was able to break the Barcelona midfield on the dribble.

Barcelona Changes

Barcelona looked to exploit the space in behind Pepe and Ramos just a few times in the first half and even then they were able to take care of any danger, which included a diving header from Casillas on one of Barcelona’s attempts to exploit that space. Barcelona are much more willing to play these longer balls under Enrique than they were under Pep or even Tata Martino, but it is understandable with a forward line of Messi, Suarez, and Neymar and a midfield trio of Mascherano, Rakitic, and Iniesta, who have significantly less chemistry and control than Busquets, Xavi, and Iniesta would. The variety in Barcelona’s play allowed the game to be very open, which should have seen Barcelona score at least three or four more goals after their second. On that second goal, Suarez timed his run well between Pepe and Sergio Ramos, Dani Alves picked him out, and Suarez finished really well across Casillas.

Once Barcelona got their second goal, they started to defend in much more of a 4-5-1 and Messi and Neymar would drift inside to help in midfield, allowing Real Madrid to play into Marcelo and Carvajal. Kroos’ space to receive the ball became a bit more limited and when he did get the ball, he was forced to play out to the full backs rather than forward to Benzema, who, with limited space between the lines and out wide, struggled to have the influence that he had done in the first half.

The game started to get more broken up with fouls from both sides and Barcelona started to find more and more chance on the break with Neymar, in particular, having a number of chances to separate the sides even more, but Casillas made some good saves on shots from the Brazilian and Jordi Alba. Messi was finding more space in the middle with Real Madrid committing more players forward and saw a shot fly just wide of Casillas’ goal.

Conclusion

It was not the most tactically interesting El Clasico (perhaps we are spoiled from the Guardiola v Mourinho days), but it was entertaining. Ancelotti and Real Madrid looked to have a plan to deal with Messi, but it was all undone by a set piece and you could see Ancelotti’s reaction was more about the displeasure in how the Catalan side scored.

Luis Enrique did well to close the game out through relative control. He brought on Busquets for Rakitic, taking off a more direct player for one well rooted in keeping the ball. He then took off Iniesta for Xavi, with aided to the idea of keeping the ball, and continued to flood midfield by bringing on Rafinha.

The result puts Barcelona four points clear of Real Madrid at the top of La Liga and puts Ancelotti under an increasing amount of pressure while Enrique has turn his fortunes around and has given his side a comfortable lead in La Liga.