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The Blaugrana picked up their first win of this preseason thanks to a 3-0 victory over Real Madrid in a wild El Clásico at AT&T Stadium in Dallas on Saturday evening.
A game that never felt like a friendly had plenty of intensity, great chances, three brilliant goals, and a big win for Barça who played very well in a few stretches and had to suffer plenty in others, but still found a way to beat their biggest rivals in a truly fantastic preseason match.
El Clasico: FIRST HALF
Barça came out with what is expected to be their strongest XI at least to start the season and utterly dominated the first 20 minutes, controlling midfield with the quartet of Oriol Romeu, Frenkie De Jong, Pedri and Ilkay Gündogan and defending with plenty of intensity to get the ball back quickly and not allow Real Madrid to counter-attack.
Romeu almost opened the scoring five minutes in with a spectacular shot that hit the crossbar, and 10 minutes later the Blaugrana took the lead on a wonderful set piece routine that saw Pedri find Ousmane Dembélé all alone inside the box and the Frenchman fire a rocket into the bottom corner.
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Madrid took more initiative after going behind and could have equalized almost instantly when Ronald Araujo committed a silly penalty by handling the ball in the area, but Vinicius hit the crossbar and missed from the spot. The game then became very physical and borderline violent at times, with hard tackles and challenges from both sides and very little quality on the ball.
But Los Blancos had a couple of chances, with Vinicius hitting the bar again and Jude Bellingham heading a ball against the post. Rodrygo also forced a big save out of Marc-André ter Stegen, and somehow Barça survived the end of the half without conceding.
The result and the performance were positive, but there two pieces of bad news in the opening 45 minutes as Barça lost Andreas Christensen and Gündogan to apparent muscle injuries.
At halftime of El Clásico Barça were in front after a wonderful start, but Madrid got themselves back in the game and were certainly going to up their level in the final period looking for a comeback.
Second Half:
Xavi Hernández decided to keep his team on for a lot longer than the opener against Arsenal, playing most of his starters for 75 minutes to improve their fitness and try to preserve the victory.
The team started the half well, with 10 solid minutes of strong possession work and a couple of excellent chances. But as time went on the lack of fitness showed and Madrid began looking like the stronger, sharper side given their more advanced stage of preparations.
But Los Blancos didn't create a real chance apart from a rocket by Aurélien Tchouaméni from distance that hit the crossbar and then Ter Stegen's head before going out for a corner, and when Xavi finally decided to pull his starters with 15 minutes to the Blaugrana were still in front.
Xavi's changes brought on plenty of attack-minded players, changing the team's shape to a 4-2-4 ready to kill the game on the counter. And they did just that with five minutes to go with a special goal by 20-year-old academy star midfielder Fermín López, who fired a rocket into the top corner with his weaker left foot to double Barça's lead at the death.
Madrid threw the kitchen's sink trying for a late comeback and Vinicius hit the bar for a third time, but luck was once again on Barça's side and the Blaugrana added a third to seal the victory: Fermín finished his incredible cameo with an assist as he played a wonderful pass over the top to Ferran Torres, who looped the ball over Thibaut Courtois and scored against an open net for his second goal in two preseason games.
The final whistle came to end a wild Clásico, one that had absolutely everything. Madrid hit the bar four times, missed a penalty, had at least three other major chances, and yet somehow Barça come away with a clean sheet and a three-goal victory. The Blaugrana also had their moments and played well while they could still run, and this ended up being a super fun 90 minutes with a satisfying result for the good guys.
