How Barcelona beat Real Madrid in the El Clasico

Barcelona spent the first half of the season in Real Madrid’s shadow. The second half has seen their resurgence, but even this El Clasico victory doesn’t dent Real’s title hopes too heavily.

El Clasico is one of football’s most iconic derbies, and it has produced some classic moments over the years.

This season, the spectacle may have been underplayed some more with the lack of major star power with Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi now both gone. But both iterations have produced great games.

The first-time round, Real Madrid beat Barcelona 2-1 at the Camp Nou. A good result but not a strong one. The most recent game, played at the Santiago Bernabeu, home of Real Madrid, saw underdogs Barcelona embarrass the home side 4-0.

It was a surprising result, as Barca have struggled throughout the season while Real have thrived at the top of the table.

But how did Barcelona get the victory? That’s exactly what we’ve tried to find out.

 

Possession 

Real Madrid: 41% 

Barcelona: 59% 

 

Barcelona ended up dominating the game, a fact which will become more evident as we go on, but first we start at possession. 

Barcelona often enjoys having the most possession in a game. They average a very strong 65% possession across the season, which tops the La Liga leaderboard.

But Real come in at second, with an average 61% for the season, so already the signs were there of a weaker Real Madrid

In their first matchup, despite Barcelona already showing struggles, they still won the possession battle, albeit a narrow 51% to Madrid’s 49%.

But it’s never all about the amount of possession, it's about what the team does with it. And Real Madrid simply didn’t give themselves enough clear chances to challenge.

 

Expected goals

Real Madrid: 0.8

Barcelona: 3.5

 

Real Madrid is expected to score goals every game. They top the league for expected goals per 90 mins, at 1.84, as well as actual goals scored per 90 mins, at 2.03. So, it is a surprise to see them not even expected to get one, let alone not actually score one.

But Barcelona aren’t any slouches. They rank in second place for both of those stats, with 2.00 goals per 90 mins and 1.80 expected goals per 90 mins.

So not only did Barcelona exceed their xG for the game, but also for their season average, which they have been doing for the last few games now.

 

Shots on target/ total 

Real Madrid: 4/14 

Barcelona: 10/18 

 

As mentioned before, Real didn’t make enough good chances for themselves. Half of their shots came from outside the box, but they never troubled Marc-Andre Ter Stegen in the Barcelona goal.

Barcelona was more clinical and were giving themselves better opportunities. 16 of their 18 total shots came from inside the penalty area.

Real are usually a lot more clinical with their shooting. They average 36.5% shots on target per game, and have an average of 6.17 shots on target per 90 mins. Those two stats have them in second in the league for the former and top of it for the latter.

Barcelona isn’t too far off with the percentage, coming in at third with 35.2%, and are also third for shots on target per 90 mins, with 4.75.

But those stats make their game stats look even more impressive, as they had 56% shots on target with six more shots on target than they would usually average.

 

Passes completed/ attempted (accuracy %) 

Real Madrid: 410/471 (87%) 

Barcelona: 621/695 (89%) 

 

These two sides are possession and passing sides, so it's no surprise to see them both at the top for possession, as we’ve already seen, but also for passing.

It is swapped, however, with Real Madrid sitting at the top with a superior 87.4% pass completion rate on the season to Barcelona’s 86.7%.

They have attempted the most passes in the league, completed the most and have covered the most distance with their passes in the league.

However, like mentioned already, it's not about the amount but about what you do with them. 

 

Saves 

Real Madrid: 6/10 (60%) 

Barcelona: 4/4 (100%) 

 

Real Madrid has only used Thibaut Courtois through the season in goal, and for good reason. He has the second-best save percentage in the league at 76.5%, has conceded the second-least amount of goals with 25, and has the third-best clean sheet, which comes in at 41.4%.

He had only conceded three goals once before in the season. And yet here he was, letting four past him in one of the biggest games of the season.

Comparatively, Barcelona’s Marc-Andre Ter Stegen hasn’t been as strong throughout the season.

He has played all but three of Barcelona’s league games this season. He has a 67.5% save percentage, which is only 0.1 percent better than the team average and still sees him in 15th in the league for the stat.

He has only conceded one more goal than Courtois, however, so that’s a positive. But his clean sheet percentage is a good 10.6% lower than Courtois’, sitting at 30.8%.

 

Combined rating of starting 11 

Real Madrid: 6.11 

Barcelona: 7.35

 

The final thing to look on is the player ratings, which reads very well for Barcelona but not so much for Real Madrid.

Real’s highest player rating for their starters was a respectable 7.1 for Ernesto Valverde. That’s not bad in a loss like they suffered.

However, it’s still not higher than Barcelona’s lowest player rating for a starter, which was Jordi Alba with a 7.2.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang had the highest rating with a 9.5, which is no surprise and he got two goals and an assist on the way to picking up his Man of the Match award