Ronald Koeman was handed another reminder that a storied career as a player is not always a guarantee of a soft landing as a manager as his work-in-progress Barcelona side were on the wrong end of a 3-1 defeat by Real Madrid in Camp Nou.
In the days leading up to the first Clásico of the season it had been Zinedine Zidane who was walking the line after successive losses to Cádiz and Shakhtar but over the course of 90 breathless minutes the Frenchman emerged with his reputation enhanced at his counterpart’s expense.
The visitors were not brilliant – they simply took their chances when they came and played to their strengths in a compact 4-4-2.
Madrid also benefited from a penalty decision from which few came out well in the replay. Not Clément Lenglet, who helped himself to a chunk of Sergio Ramos’ shirt, nor the Madrid captain, who hurled himself to the turf after contact had ceased. VAR intervened and ruled penalty. Ramos duly dispatched it to make it 2-1.
Fede Valverde had opened the scoring only for Ansu Fati to cancel out the opener two minutes later and it appeared for a brief instant as if a pools-busting scoreline was on the cards.
Neto was instrumental in ensuring Barça remained in the game until the 90th minute when Luka Modric found the net with cool precision after Madrid enjoyed the rub of the green following the keeper’s dash from the line.
Barcelona also had their opportunities but a combination of Thibaut Courtois, who has shrugged off the question marks of last season, some astute defending and the occasional wrong decision from the hosts – such as when Ansu could have squared for Leo Messi – conspired against Koeman’s side.
A half-hearted appeal for a penalty against Varane was denied and in the final 15 minutes Madrid were in the ascendancy as the game ebbed away from Barça.
It fell to Modric, a substitute on the day, to have the final word. Doing what Vinicius could not, the Croatian kept his nerve, bided his time and put the game beyond doubt.
As Sergio Ramos said, at Madrid two games is a crisis. It may well be for Koeman: Barça have not suffered back-to-back Liga defeats since 2016. (en.as.com)
