5 Reasons why Real Madrid dominated Barcelona in El Clasico

3. Carlo Ancelotti learned from his mistakes of past season

Last season, a different picture was painted on the Santiago Bernabeu canvas when Real Madrid were thoroughly embarrassed by Barcelona at home by a scoreline that will be talked about for years to come and understandably so. The game was a nightmare in every way, with everything appearing chaotic from the hosts’ end as each goal crept in.

That El Clasico encounter was a disaster, with every approach employed by the management failing, and Barcelona completely destroying Los Blancos on their home turf. There were several errors committed, and Real Madrid undoubtedly learnt a lot from them in a short period of time, which acted as a wake-up call and helped them dominate Europe that season.

Carlo Ancelotti undoubtedly noted all of the errors and corrected them in Sunday’s game. It only took him 90 minutes last season to figure out where everything went wrong, then another 90 minutes on Sunday to make the necessary changes.

One of the most significant lessons he learned was not to experiment in such critical games. Playing Luka Modric as a false nine was a terrible idea that definitely did not work out. This game, though, Benzema was available, which underlined how effectively the two Ballon d’Or winners performed on the day.

Xavi definitely bossed Ancelotti in their last meeting, but the manager was mature enough to absorb the criticism and turn things around, which he did magnificently. His tactics crippled Barcelona from every point and led to a comfortable victory for Los Blancos.