A detailed, player-by-player breakdown of Barcelona's masterful win against Real Madrid in this season's first El Clasico.
| Claudio Bravo |
9.4 |
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Minutes played: 90
Touches: 54
Passes: 33
Pass Accuracy: 70%
Shots Faced: 7
Saves Made: 7
Interceptions: 1
Bostjan says: 9.5
Bravo had to be on his game to prevent the hosts from scoring in the El Clasico, and boy was he ever on his game. Making seven saves on the evening, Bravo had a largely uneventful first half, though he did cause some unnecessary danger by dropping an easy cross minutes before the halftime whistle, but the Chilean was tested often after the break. He had to make a strong stop early in the half, denying James Rodriguez, before twice frustrating Cristiano Ronaldo, both times from up close, and also made a superb save on a Karim Benzema header. A truly brilliant performance between the sticks. |
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| Dani Alves |
7.6 |
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Minutes played: 90
Touches: 93
Passes: 79
Pass Accuracy: 89%
Key Passes: 1
Turnovers: 3
Tackles: 2
Shots/Shots on Target: 0/0
Clearances: 0
Aerial Duels Won: 1
Interceptions: 2
Bostjan says: 7.5
Many were pointing to Alves for being the weakest player on this Barcelona team, but, with some tactical changes which offered the Brazilian more support, Alves put in a very good showing. He still lost possession a few too many times for my liking, but it seems as if Alves likes to play on the biggest stages. Alves picked up a yellow card for stopping a counter attack – and paid the price for it, receiving an elbow to the back of the head, but he was able to continue and finish the game. |
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| Javier Mascherano |
6.9 |
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Minutes played: 27
Touches: 21
Passes: 20
Pass Accuracy: 95%
Tackles: 0
Interceptions: 1
Clearances: 0
Aerial Duels Won: 0
Fouls: 0
Bostjan says: 6.5
After a rocky start to the game, Mascherano started to settle into the game, but his evening was cut short by an injury. El Jefecito attempted to play through the knock, but he was forced to come off after just 27 minutes. |
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| Gerard Pique |
8.0 |
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Minutes played: 90
Touches: 64
Passes: 51
Pass Accuracy: 96%
Tackles: 2
Interceptions: 2
Clearances: 2
Aerial Duels Won: 2
Turnovers: 1
Bostjan says: 8.0
Forced to play through constant whistles from the Real Madrid crowd, well, at least until they didn’t start whistling the home team, Pique seemed unfazed. He looked solid defensively throughout, making a couple good tackles. Toward the end of the game, Pique looked desperate to score the fifth goal, hoping he would be able to lift his hand, showing all five fingers like he did in a different historic El Clasico win, but it was not meant to be. |
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| Jordi Alba |
8.0 |
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Minutes played: 90
Touches: 90
Passes: 79
Pass Accuracy: 87%
Shots/Shots on Target: 0/0
Tackles: 2
Interceptions: 2
Clearances: 2
Key Passes: 1
Turnovers: 2
Bostjan says: 8.0
Constantly running up and down the left flank, Alba rarely looked out of place either on offense or on defense. Was always looking to get open in attack for a pass from Neymar or Iniesta and was able to send some dangerous passes to his teammates, picking up an assist on the last goal of the match. Defensively he was tested surprisingly little, but when he was he performed admirably. |
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| Sergio Busquets |
8.3 |
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Minutes played: 90
Touches: 77
Passes: 65
Pass Accuracy: 89%
Shots/Shots on Target: 0/0
Tackles: 5
Interceptions: 0
Clearances: 0
Turnovers: 3
Aerial Duels Won: 1
Key Passes: 0
Fouls Won: 0
Sam says: 8.0
With plenty of attacking players ahead of him, Busquets main job was to protect the back four and control the play from deep. He performed this duty well with the five tackles and 89% pass success rate. This meant Madrid were largely limited to long range efforts, however, they did on occasion breakaway and required multiple good saves by Claudio Bravo. |
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| Ivan Rakitić |
7.7 |
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Minutes played: 56
Touches: 54
Passes: 46
Pass Accuracy: 96%
Shots/Shots on Target: 3/0
Turnovers: 1
Key Passes: 1
Fouls Won: 2
Tackles: 1
Sam says: 7.0
A better game form Rakitić as he seemed more involved in the Barça attacks. He regularly pushed forward and managed three shots himself. The second being a certainty for goal had it not been for Raphael Varane. He was also one of the most accurate passers which helped Barça maintain control. Left the field for Lionel Messi in the 56th minute. |
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| Andres Iniesta |
9.4 |
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Minutes played: 76
Touches: 78
Passes: 68
Pass Accuracy: 96%
Shots/Shots on Target: 1/1
Fouls Won: 0
Turnovers: 2
Successful Dribbles: 4
Key Passes: 1
Tackles: 1
Sam says: 9.0
It seems that whenever Iniesta sees the white of Madrid, he takes his already high level up another notch. This time was no different. Given freedom to move, he looked the happiest man on the pitch. Pinging cross field balls, sliding eye-of-the-needle passes and dribbling with ease through the Madrid defence, Iniesta was at his mighty best. He registered his first league assist of the season, a delicately placed ball to Neymar that beat the offside trap by the nearest of margins and to top off a stellar performance he got his first goal of the season. He released the ball to Neymar and burst forward to get on the end of the return pass before, without a moment’s hesitation, rifling the ball high into the top corner. Given a standing ovation from the home crowd as he left the field. |
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| Sergi Roberto |
8.7 |
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Minutes played: 90
Touches: 59
Passes: 50
Pass Accuracy: 86%
Shots/Shots on Target: 1/0
Turnovers: 3
Successful Dribbles: 0
Key Passes: 2
Fouls Won: 1
Interceptions: 1
Arron says: 8.5
Full disclosure, I wanted to rate everyone as a perfect ten, but then I figured some of the others might not have gone down that route; so for Sergi Roberto, this was a real breakout performance, no pun intended. Despite starting in his third position of the season (fourth, if you count the two separate midfield spots as different), Sergi looked right at home in the attack and it was his incisive dribble and pass that got the rout started. We all thought the worst when Rafinha went down with a season-ending knee injury; turns out, we didn't have anything to worry about. |
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| Luis Suarez |
9.3 |
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Minutes played: 90
Touches: 51
Passes: 32
Pass Accuracy: 56%
Shots/Shots on Target: 4/3
Fouls Won: 1
Successful Dribbles: 1
Key Passes: 1
Turnovers: 3
Clearances: 4
Arron says: 9.0
The Uruguayan may rub me up the wrong way with some of his antics, but my goodness, he knows how to score goals. And important ones at that. His brace was the individual highlight of the match as he displayed icy composure to finish a couple of one-on-ones with statistically the best keeper in La Liga, at least headed into that match. |
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| Neymar |
9.3 |
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Minutes played: 90
Touches: 73
Passes: 57
Pass Accuracy: 90%
Shots/Shots on Target: 4/3
Successful Dribbles: 3
Key Passes: 6
Fouls Won: 5
Turnovers: 4
Tackles: 0
Arron says: 9.0
I was tempted to rate Neymar a little higher, but the only players who really deserve more than a 9/10 are Iniesta and Bravo. On another night, Neymar would have also had a brace to his name, but as it was, he had to settle for a measly goal and assist, the latter of which formed the highlight reel play of the game as his subtle back-heel absolutely wrecked the Real backline and teed up Iniesta for that barnstorming third goal. |
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| Jeremy Mathieu |
7.6 |
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Minutes played: 63
Touches: 52
Passes: 44
Pass Accuracy: 84%
Clearances: 5
Bostjan says: 7.5
Put in a tough position, coming on the pitch midway through the first half, Mathieu played a strong game. It wasn’t without mistakes as me missed an easy clearance late in the first half and took some risks on the ball, but Real were unable to punish him for that. Used his positional senses very well which led to several good clearances. |
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| Lionel Messi |
7.8 |
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Minutes played: 34
Touches: 39
Passes: 34
Pass Accuracy: 82%
Key Passes: 1
Bostjan says: 7.5
Making his first appearance since 26 September, Messi was obviously not firing on all cylinders just yet, which is scary considering some of the moves he was able to display and some of the passes he distributed. He wasn’t able to join the scoring parade, but getting some game-time after nearly two months away from the pitch will be invaluable going forward. |
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| Munir El Haddadi |
5.1 |
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Minutes played: 14
Touches: 11
Passes: 5
Pass Accuracy: 40%
Shots/Shots on Target: 3/0
Bostjan says: 5.0
Well, what little confidence Munir still had in his finishing coming into this game will surely be gone now. He had several chances to complete the manita, but didn’t come close on any of his attempts and the youngster drew the ire of Pique for "stealing" a scoring chance from him. |
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| The Team | 9.5 |
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Passes: 658
Pass Accuracy: 87%
Shots/Shots on Target: 18/7
Tackles: 22
Aerial Battles Won: 50%
Fouls Won/Committed: 13/10
Arron says: 10.0
To think -- some people had the nerve to write off the Blaugrana after a few bad performances this season. Apparently we were done after being beaten by Athletic Bilbao. Likewise after Celta Vigo, and once again for good measure after Sevilla. Dear haters, watch this performance and tell me once again: are FC Barcelona done? This was an all-time great performance from an all-time great side; they made Real Madrid look like complete amateurs. Forget Rafa Benitez or Florentino Perez; that's because we were that damn impressive. The season is long, but if we can replicate this kind of performance when it matters, another treble would be far from out of the question. |
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| Luis Enrique |
9.2 |
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Arron says: 10.0
Have we ever had a better big-game manager than Luis Enrique? That's a genuine question, because I'm struggling to think of one right now. As much at it helps to have that star-studded front-line, credit has to go to Enrique for such a flawless tactical game-plan. Perfect. |
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| MOTM - Andres Iniesta |
43% |
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Bostjan says: Iniesta
For the first time in quite some time, neither of Suarez or Neymar won the Man of the Match award. This time it went to the deserving hands of Iniesta who finished the game with a goal and an assist. Finishing in second was Bravo with 24% while Suarez (14%) just edged Neymar (13%) for third place. |
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