Barcelona live on the edge as Lewandowski double helps spank Real Madrid in Clasico

Real wasted several clear chances before Polish striker Lewandowski silenced the Bernabeu crowd

Robert Lewandowski of FC Barcelona celebrates scoring his team's second goal. (Photo by Angel Martinez/Getty Images)

La Liga: Real Madrid 0 Barcelona 4

Life is good lived on the edge. Barcelona played the clásico atop a high-wire, a perfect plan executed with precision and without fear, and finished it at the top of the table, their wonderful week complete. Three days after they scored four against Bayern Munich to exorcise those European ghosts, Hansi Flick’s team came to the Santiago Bernabéu and scored four more. Robert Lewandowski, a new man now, scored twice; Lamine Yamal became the youngest player ever to score in this fixture; and Raphinha lifted in the last, history written.

The risk Barcelona supposedly ran was the one that undid Madrid, not them. Carlo Ancelotti’s team were sliced apart, stripped naked at the Bernabéu by a team that started with six players under 21 in the side. “There are games in Germany they call the clásico but it’s not the same,” Flick had said, and he was right. But even the real clásico isn’t always quite like this; his first was was perfect. Kylian Mbappé’s was not: three shots, he had, and those were just the ones that did count, Repeatedly caught in a perfectly laid trap, there were many more that did not.

Much of the focus had been on Flick’s offside trap and his philosophy became a central feature of this clásico, another match played on the edge of the abyss. Barcelona apply the highest line in Europe, coming into this having caught opponents offside 65 times, twice as many as any team on the continent and averaging more than anyone else in nine years.

That speaks to the coordination, the bravery too, but it comes with risks, especially against forwards as fast as Mbappé and Vinícius Júnior, clocked at 35km/h last week. And that was played out immediately, Mbappé dashing away after just 85 seconds. The position was perfect, the place from which he has defeated so many goalkeepers: coming in off the left, he opened up his body, dropped his shoulder and pulled the shot to the near post. This time though the ball rippled the outside of the net.

Jude Bellingham of Real Madrid reacts following FC Barcelona's second goal (Photo by David Ramos/Getty Images)

Replays suggested he was offside anyway, those stats rising once more; in fact, it was easy to soon lose count. When Mbappé floated over Iñaki Peña from a long way out, when the Barcelona goalkeeper clawed an astonishing shot off the line, when Vinícius fired over from close range, and when the Brazilian hit the side-netting, the moves had something in common. Each time Madrid had been released into space behind Barcelona’s defence and each time the flag went up, usually once the move was concluded. Barcelona were judging this just right; they were also walking a tightrope.

Madrid had been caught offside six times inside half an hour of a wildly enjoyable, open game with almost no midfield, the ball bypassing it, so much happening. It wasn’t entirely one way, either. An outrageous backheeled pass from Lewandowski sent Lamine Yamal clean through, only for him to scuff the shot – he might have been offside too – Raphinha fired over, Iñigo Martínez’s header evaded the bar and Andriy Lunin saved from Pedri. And then, on 30 minutes Mbappé scored, dashing through again to lift into the net. Only, guess what, he was offside. It was the fifth time he had been caught.

The plan was working, all that apparent precariousness perhaps precision. Barcelona’s chances had not seemed to carry the threat of Madrid’s, the abyss always open at the feet of Flick’s side. And yet, when the trap works so often it cannot be chance, the frequency dropped in the second half and it was they who found a way through – right through the middle into the wide space beyond. Madrid’s line was broken by Ferland Mendy – it’s not so easy, see? – and Lewandowski was ready, arching and timing his run the way that Mbappé had not. From 18 yards he curled a superb low finish beyond Lunin.

Two minutes and 20 seconds later, Barcelona had scored again, Alejandro Balde’s cross expertly headed in by the Pole, alone between the centre-backs. And he should have a had a hat-trick too when they again cut through Madrid. Twice, in fact: the first, set up by Raphinha, was an astonishing miss, the shot hitting the post faced by an open goal; the second, set up by Lamine, was fired over.

Between those chances, as if revived by the prospect of another miraculous escape opening the door to another implausible comeback, Madrid stirred. This time, though, it wasn’t to be. Mbappé escaped through the middle, onside this time, but was denied by Peña. Soon after he dashed clear again but, knowing that he was offside, lacked conviction. Madrid were wide open, falling to pieces. No sign of a plan, they wanted a mad, open game but Barcelona were not prepared to give it to them; what they were prepared to do was take advanage of Madrid’s search for it.

And so it was that Barcelona found a way through again, a long ball intercepted by Raphinha who dashed into space and laid into the pass of Lamine Yamal to smash a finish, the finish, into the roof of the net. And then Raphinha reached another long ball, this time from Martínez to lift over Peña and into the net. Madrid were finished, left in pieces. There was just time for Mbappé to run free once more. The shot was saved and the flag was up, of course.

Guardian