5 Reasons why Real Madrid dominated Barcelona in El Clasico

4. Beginning with early pressure resistance and control

Real Madrid is infamous for allowing the opposition side to dominate the first few minutes of the game, and in some cases the whole first half, just to turn things around and overrun them in the closing minutes. This game, on the other hand, was different.

The players took charge of the game and pushed Barcelona in the centre of the field from the first minute of play. They were also extremely press resistant, absorbing the intense rally of Barcelona players from all three vertical sections of the field.

Aurelien Tchouameni was extremely efficient in this sense. He followed the Blaugrana colours all over, putting pressure on them and causing them to drop the ball to either the Frenchman and his tackles or the defensive line.

Eder Militao and David Alaba’s partnership was also highly robust and resilient, avoiding unneeded risky duels deep in their own half and moving the ball about with simple yet efficient passes between them and the wing backs.

Andriy Lunin, too, contributed significantly by mapping his box and shooting the ball ahead even if it meant that it went out of play at times; the objective was clear – to render Barcelona’s press useless, which they accomplished excellently.