Lamine Yamal acknowledged on October 26 that he and his Barcelona teammates thought they were “the best team in the world.” It would be easy to see why. Three days after Barca had thrashed Bayern Munich 4-1 at Montjuic, Yamal was inside the Santiago Bernabeu when he made his revelation. At that time, Barca had just defeated Real Madrid 4-0.
Hansi Flick’s team had a swagger about them; no other team in Europe was playing with such assurance. Yamal said, “We’ve proven that we can beat anyone,” with pride.
That is still the case, but Barca appears capable of losing to anyone at this moment. A terrible run of defeats against mid-table teams has reduced the Blaugrana’s lead to one after they defeated city rivals Espanyol the week after the Clasico to go nine points ahead of Madrid.
Barcelona, under Flick, play a risky game. They can exert tremendous pressure on opponents thanks to their exceptionally high line, but because of the acres of space they create behind their backline, they are also exposed to well-timed counterattacks. However, Flick believes that the benefit greatly outweighs the risk. One example was the Clasico.
Carlo Ancelotti had already admitted that he needed to address Barca’s high line. He claimed to have a strategy in mind, but whatever it was, it was obviously unsuccessful as Madrid was unable to handle the Catalans, and Flick’s forwards went into overdrive, with Raphinha, Yamal, and the revitalized Robert Lewandowski all scoring goals.
The current European and Spanish champions had been effectively outplayed by Flick, who reportedly informed his players during the half, “Anyone who drops back a metre, I’ll substitute them!”
But even if his strategies were very effective, the visitors were undoubtedly flattered by the final score. Although their performance was outstanding and their win was well-earned, it should not be forgotten that Madrid had many chances (their xG was 1.48 compared to Barcelona’s 2.58) and that the game would have been very different if Kylian Mbappe had been able to time a run.
And in recent weeks, we’ve begun to observe what occurs when Barca’s high line and pressing misfire.
