Barça’s first title in the Flick era

FC Barcelona won their first title under Hansi Flick this weekend. The Blaugranas defeated Real Madrid by a huge score of 5-2 and were crowned Spanish Super Champions.

The match went crazy at the start with chances for both clubs and a fast pace. The first lucky one was Kylian Mbappé in the 5th minute, who scored 1-0 for Real Madrid and launched them as favourites.

However, in a classic like in life anything can happen, and Barça was not going to sit back and do nothing and in the 22nd minute the Barça jewel Lamine Yamal scored a goal of very good quality to tie the match.

Pointing out the blame is not ideal in a team where very few were up to par, but the Merengue defence fell apart from that point on, with Lucas Vázquez and Aurelien Tchoumeni being the most pointed out. Both players were completely disconnected from the game, leaving spaces and unable to contain the attacks of the Blaugrana forward.

They made several mistakes, allowing goals in the 39th and 48th minutes by the Brazilian Raphina, including a childish tackle by Camavinga that was worth a penalty and therefore a goal by Robert Lewandowski from the 9th step in the 36th.

The other Barcelona goal was by the Spanish full-back Alejandro Balde, just as the first half ended in a counterattack where Lucas Vázquez and Tchoumeni were again in a bad position. In this play Valverde tried but as the Cuban saying goes, one post does not make a mountain.

There were many reasons for this Blaugrana victory. The white team lost the psychological war during the course of the match, Vinicius Jr. was not in his best form, contrary to the excellent form of the opponents Raphina and Yamal.

Mbappé had a great game, but he was not accompanied. The vast majority of fans and analysts point to Carlos Ancelotti’s poor decisions as the main cause of the defeat, the lack of confidence in his youth players and youngsters like Raúl Asencio, Güler and Endrick, the capricious attitude of keeping a player in poor form like Tchoumeni, Lucas and Mendy in the starting line-up, the changes late in the game, all were factors that influenced and show that, although the Italian coach has brought several titles to Madrid, his time in the Spanish capital must end.

Barcelona celebrates its well-deserved title, Madrid’s mistakes cannot be a reason to discredit the performance of those from Catalonia.

Translated by Casterman Medina de Leon