I said last week that Vinicius Jr. is a crucial member of the Real Madrid team and Zinedine Zidane made a mistake by replacing him against Man City, allowing the English opponents to take control of the game.
In El Clasico last night, Zidane corrected his mistake by keeping Vinicius Jr on the pitch and was rewarded with a goal from Vinicius that earned Madrid a really important win against Barcelona. The 2-0 win for Los Blancos put them top of the table and could be a turning point in the La Liga title race.
Vinicius is still very young and has a lot to learn before he becomes a genuine star player. In El Clasico, he ran for the entire game, made Barça’s defence work and got his reward when his shot was deflected by Pique and went past a surprised Ter-Stegen. If Vinicius keeps working like this, I’m sure he is going to have a bright future ahead.
Madrid have renewed confidence for Champions League clash
El Clasico was very important for Real Madrid and beating Barcelona 2-0 is obviously a boost for the team and fans. They will now feel more confident about their qualification hopes in the Champions League, despite the difficulty of their task when they try to overturn a 2-1 deficit in the second leg against Man City.
Zidane’s players will feel energised by yesterday’s result, as they have beaten a direct rival and leapfrogged them in La Liga , so the team should feel bullish about their chances when they go to Manchester on 17 March.
Barcelona blew golden chance to seal title
Quique Setien’s players knew El Clasico was a big chance for them to run away at the top of La Liga. By losing at Santiago Bernabéu, they should feel they wasted an opportunity at an important stage of the season.
Barca played well in the first-half and could have scored the first goal, which would have changed the approach of both teams. But they weren’t clinical and in the second-half Madrid managed to play better and take advantage of their chances.
In these kinds of matches, every detail can make the difference and if Barcelona had scored first I’m sure things would have been different. But it didn’t happen that way this time and Madrid ended up taking more risks in the second-half and were rewarded for that.
Messi is isolated up front
As usual, Lionel Messi had little space to play in. He is Barca’s difference match winner and if he is well defended their chances of being threatening in attack are severely reduced.
At the moment, he is the only Barcelona player taking responsibility with the ball, shooting from outside the box and trying to unbalance opposing defenders. No one else in the team seems capable of helping him in that department.
That makes things tough for the Argentinian. Without Luis Suárez, Barcelona loses a lot because, apart from Messi, they have no other player who can surprise opponents. The Uruguayan works hard, is fearless and puts opposing defences to the sword very often.
Barca are missing Suarez and, in his absence, they’re putting all the responsibility on Messi. When they lose, everyone starts asking what happened to Messi. He is always the target of fans’ frustration when things don’t go so well for the team but that’s unfair.