start<\/a> again. And then in injury time, he did it. This time, the celebrations were exhilarating.<\/p>\nBarca’s collapse after good start shows there is still work to do<\/h2>\n
Barcelona will be wondering how this one slipped through their fingers.<\/p>\n
They were the better team early on, with Xavi’s decision to play three central and full backs working well. The Barca boss would have taken great satisfaction from his side’s first-half performance, with Vinicius and Bellingham linking up well and Gundogan’s goal giving the home side a deserved lead.<\/p>\n
However, Xavi will be frustrated with the way Barca let Madrid back into the game after the break as they were beaten for the first time in La Liga this season, leaving them four points behind co-leaders Madrid and Girona.<\/p>\n
Fitness concerns had dominated Barca’s preparation for the first Clasico of the season. In the end, Robert Lewandowski, Raphinha and Jules Kound\u00e9 were deemed fit enough to return to the bench, but it came too soon for Frenkie de Jong, Pedri and Sergi Roberto.<\/p>\n
Despite this, Bar\u00e7a impressed from the start. Gundogan’s goal gave them a sixth-minute lead and they should have added a second. Ferm\u00edn L\u00f3pez, one of the revelations of the season, hit the post. Jo\u00e3o F\u00e9lix then lingered on the ball after making a superb nutmeg on R\u00fcdiger, allowing Carvajal to make a brilliant challenge.<\/p>\n
More opportunities presented themselves after the break. I\u00f1igo Mart\u00ednez headed Ferm\u00edn’s cross against the post and goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga saved Ronald Araujo’s rebound. On the hour mark, Lewandowski was introduced as Xavi looked to kill the game and overtake Madrid in the table. Jo\u00e3o Cancelo then saw an effort deflected wide before Los Blancos began to ask Bar\u00e7a a few questions.<\/p>\n
Tchouam\u00e9ni’s long ranger, deflected by Ter Stegen, served as a warning and a few minutes later, Bellingham equalized Madrid from distance. Lewandowski almost restored Bar\u00e7a’s lead but, just as the match seemed destined to be a draw, Bellingham reappeared, converting Carvajal’s cross in stoppage time.<\/p>\n
It was supposed to be the Rolling Stones’ Cl\u00e1sico. Their logo adorned Barca’s jerseys as part of the club’s sponsorship deal with Spotify and Mick Jagger and Ronnie Wood sat in the directors’ box. The soundtrack, however, as has often been the case in Madrid this season, was ultimately provided by a Beatles song: “Hey Jude”.<\/p>\n
The defeat will hurt Bar\u00e7a but it should not derail their season. This happened in difficult circumstances with several players absent or unfit and a four-point gap to the leaders after 11 games is not a disaster. However, he also stressed there was still work to do at both ends of the pitch after they failed to add a second before fading in the final 20 minutes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Bellingham saves poor Real Madrid in El Clasico vs. Barca\u060c BARCELONA, Spain – Real Madrid emerged as winners of Saturday’s Clasico against Barcelona thanks to the heroics of Jude Bellingham, whose two goals canceled out an early Bar\u00e7a goal at the Estadi Ol\u00edmpic Llu\u00eds Companys. With this result, Barcelona suffers their first defeat of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5397,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[3649,1539,3742,2184,36,2183,3900],"class_list":["post-5396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-sports","tag-barca","tag-bellingham","tag-clasico","tag-madrid","tag-poor","tag-real","tag-saves"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5396"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5396\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6908,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5396\/revisions\/6908"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}