It was a demonstration of authority by Barça in a clàssic that will go down in history. The absence of Leo Messi, overcome thanks to a festival of goals against Real Madrid that shows Julen Lopetegui directly to the exit door (5-1). Luis Suárez, with a hat trick, assumed the responsibility for leading a team that has ended its most testing week with the best possible outcome. Oh, and it also continues for another week as leader of the Liga.
A plan with legs
Barça coach Ernesto Valverde had given contradictory clues about his intentions prior to the match. He wanted to leave doubts in the air about a starting line-up that, in fact, was very clear. The team's dress rehearsal on Wednesday in its Champion's League victory over Inter de Milan was so convincing that today the same eleven footballers stepped out onto Camp Nou. With Messi, the highest scorer in Barça-Madrid history, injured and watching from the stands, it was Rafinha who was once called upon to link Barça's midfield and forward line.
Barça's plan was to attack on Madrid's right, where centre back Nacho was playing much wider than usual. The idea was to exploit his defensive weaknesses through the speed of Barça's Jordi Alba assisted by Philippe Coutinho. And it worked to perfection. Lopetegui went out with the idea of avoiding a loss, letting the home side have the ball and placing all ten field players in thirty metres of the pitch: lines close together in order to look for counter-attacking opportunities. It was an approach that smelled, unbecoming to a team like Madrid, and it failed after ten minutes.
Barça was flying in every play. All the divided balls were falling the same way. Alba made the most of a perfectly-judged pass into space by Ivan Rakitic to give the first goal to Coutinho, who had only to raise his head to choose where he would place the ball. The goal added to the hesitancy of a completely inoperative Madrid, a team that had nothing in common with the side that won the last Champions' League final.
The differences between the two teams were so great and obvious that Barça was able to repeat the same formula. Long possessions involving every type of pass. In this context, Sergio Busquets was masterful. Barça's captain was always first to break and just as quick to help. The pressure forced Madrid to try anything with the ball. The blancos played without a midfield. Literally. They only bothered Ter Stegen with long shots.
Even before the result, this clàssic was destined to go into the history of the league: for the first time, the VAR played a role in a Barça-Madrid match. The referee let a flagrant penalty go by, when Raphael Varane clearly fouled Luis Suárez in the area. The video ref put it to rights. Suárez showed no doubt from the spot to score the second blaugrana goal. Camp Nou went nuts, because Barça was playing with a puppet. A zombie Madrid. They had produced nothing in the first half hour.
A different match
It looked like the match scriptwriter was about to write in an avalanche of goals. Piqué, however, fluffed his line, when he had a chance with a header, and the scoreboard didn't move before halftime. Two-nil was as unfair as it was dangerous. Lopetegui saw the writing was on the wall and decided to risk everything with a change of system. With Varane's injury, the coach made a virtue from necessity and switched to a plan with three at the back and two very wide midfielders.
The change turned the game upside down. Madrid moved up to play in blaugrana territory while the home team went to pieces. Then Isco opened up along the sideline and found Marcelo in space, who controlled the ball and scored the 2-1. This was another Madrid. A team that now threatened, but also pardoned. Modric had the 2-2 at his feet but sent it onto the woodwork. Piqué looked up at the Camp Nou crowd and called for encouragement because Barça needed it. Valverde had to reshuffle his team and did so, leaving Suárez alone at the front. The team needed to find itself again because Madrid was attacking more and better.
In the interchange of shots, Suárez also managed to give the Madrid goalposts a shaking. The match was completely open. It was a scenario which did not favour a Barça that was incapable of hanging on to the ball to recover its strength. No-one renounced attacking. Benzema failed at the chance to change the sign of the martch and Valverde got the message, sending on Nélson Semedo and Ousmane Dembélé to minimize the risk and protect the three points.
The goal heavens open
No sooner said than done. In a counter-attack by Dembélé, Sergi Roberto found Luis Suárez, who hit a copybook header from the penalty spot to bring up the 3-1. Suddenly, Barça was breathing oxygen again and had the match just where it wanted it. Madrid was running out of alternatives. Defeat would worsen the team's crisis and the injury of Marcelo, who had been barely fit to play, meant that the immediate future for the blancos was looking dark.
An error from Sergio Ramos brought their afternoon in Barcelona to a full stop. Suárez, with a gentle lob, overcame the challenge from Courtois to score his third goal. 'Real' damage was being done thanks to the exhibition, when it mattered, by the Uruguayan who has assumed the role of the injured Messi. Between olés, Camp Nou then watched as the substitute Arturo Vida, in one of the first balls he touched, scored the home team's fifth, with his head. Can Barça was a festa. And Suárez let Madrid off the hook when he could have scored the sixth.
An historic victory that leaves Barça leader and Madrid a little deeper in its hole. Lopetegui knows that, never mind his days, his very hours are numbered. A goal spree from the arch enemy that is the last straw for Madridismo. That, and the fact that his team have only won a single point of the last 15 they have played for in Spain's Liga.