Barcelona’s season is over
Barcelona’s defeat to Real Madrid means Xavi’s side now sit 11 points behind Los Blancos with six games left to play and can wave goodbye to the title.
Twice Barcelona led at the Bernabeu, but twice Real Madrid came back to snatch a precious point. Jude Bellingham then cropped up in stoppage time to somehow win it for Los Blancos. How do they keep on doing it? Why can’t Barca hold a lead?
Xavi’s side had managed to pick themselves up from a dismal defeat in midweek in a decent showing. Lamine Yamal was electric, Fermin Lopez and Pedri both made an impact off the bench and Andreas Christensen showed up Madrid’s weaknesses at set pieces.
Yet Barca simply don’t have Madrid’s elite mentality and ended up going home empty-handed and with nothing to play for in the final weeks of the season.
We must now wait to hear what will happen with Xavi too. Speculation continues to rage that the Barcelona manager could end up staying on, but defeats in crucial games over PSG and Real Madrid mean there’s no guarantee he will continue.
Controversy clouds another El Clasico
Once again the most famous game on the planet was clouded in controversy with a host of big decisions going against Barcelona in the Spanish capital.
The first call came when Cubarsi conceded a penalty for Madrid’s equaliser. The youngster stuck out a leg which Lucas Vazquez needed no hesitation to run into and fall to the ground.
Minutes later and we were left to wonder once again why on earth there’s no goal-line tech in La Liga. Lamine Yamal thought he’d made it 2-1 but there’s no way of knowing if the whole of the ball went over the line because the Spanish top flight hasn’t bothered with the tech.
There was no goal given to Barcelona after this save made by Andriy Lunin to deny Lamine Yamal after VAR decided that the ball did not cross the line.
There is no goal line technology in LALIGA. pic.twitter.com/ls10yNjquc
— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) April 21, 2024
To make things worse, La Liga president Tebas even appeared to defend the lack of the technology in Spain’s top flight after the game in a frankly embarrassing, but not entirely surprising, turn of events.
There was still time for another penalty shout in the second half when Lopez was felled by Antonio Rudiger. It wasn’t the strongest shout you’ve ever seen but it certainly seemed as much of a penalty as the one handed out to Vazquez.
Bad week for Cancelo
Joao Cancelo capped a difficult week with a really poor performance in El Clasico that will leave big question marks over his future at the club.
The full-back headed into the match after conceding a costly penalty against PSG in midweek that led to some supporters sending him vile abuse on social media.
Cancelo started again in El Clasico but was once again targeted down the left side of the Barcelona defence and once again he struggled.
Photo by Mateo Villalba/Getty Images
Pau Cubarsi may have conceded the penalty for Real Madrid’s first equaliser, but it came from a really poor piece of play from Cancelo who should have seen the ball out.
There were more shaky moments from the Portugal international before we went AWOL again as Real Madrid equalised again just minutes after Fermin Lopez had put Barca 2-1 up.
Barca are believed to be keen to keep hold of Cancelo but it will be a costly operation and one that simply doesn’t seem worth doing. Simply put, Cancelo is costing the team goals right now and is the biggest weakness in the backline.