Real Madrid beats Barcelona in chaotic clasico colored by controversy

High-line hijinks

Barcelona coach Hansi Flick is many things, but flexible is not one of them. The German plays an aggressively high defensive line and no one— not the press, not the opposition, not even his own players — can talk him out of it.

His logic, in some ways, is sound. By pushing his defenders high up the field, Flick forces his opponents into playing their attackers offside. If they manage to break his defensive line and send an attacker clear through on goal, the referees will blow the whistle and return possession to Flick's Barcelona.

Flick's high line worked brilliantly against Olympiacos in the Champions League earlier this week; his Barcelona side scored six goals then, many of them set up or assisted by high-pressing defensive players.

"We always play with the back four very high," he told ESPN. "Because the referees don't whistle [for offside], it looks dangerous, but it's not dangerous."

It's not usually dangerous. But Barcelona doesn't usually play against Bellingham and Kylian Mbappe, two players who are clearly wise to its high line and eminently capable of breaking it. Madrid's first goal was a crisp, perfectly-timed sequence that highlighted all the danger inherent in Flick's system. Had he dropped his defenders back a little further, it never would've happened.

Individual errors

Flick's high line was the biggest blunder of the evening, but it was surrounded by a series of individual errors across the field. Barcelona's equalizer came off a mistake from Guler, who lost possession in his own half after being pressured, successfully, by Pedri. Madrid's winner came off a mistake from French defender Jules Kounde, who left Bellingham unmarked at the far post for reasons known only to him. 

And the game nearly swung upon a controversial call when first official Cesar Soto Grado awarded Madrid a penalty for an Eric Garcia handball. (Ageless Barcelona keeper Wojciech Szczesny saved the penalty anyway.)

After all that mess on the field, the players conspired to deliver some mess on the sidelines. Madrid winger Vinicius Jr. threw a tantrum when he was substituted, while Pedri got a red card in the final minutes when he was aggressive on his last tackle. 

Was the first Madrid-Barcelona matchup of the season intriguing? Undoubtedly. But the sheer volume of errors on both sides of the field kept this clasico from becoming a classic.