Bellingham scored twice to help Real Madrid beat Barca

Goal
Barca:Gundogan (6')
Real Madrid:Bellingham (68', 90'+2)

Welcoming Real Madrid in the first El Clasico of the season, Barca took the field with the familiar 4-3-3 formation. The home team's back four consisted of Alejandro Balde, Ronald Araujo, Andreas Christensen, Joao Cancelo. The midfield three consisted of Ilkay Gundogan, Inigo Martinez and Gavi. Barca's attacking trio will be a combination of Joao Felix, Ferran Torres and Fermin Lopez. Robert Lewandowski has recovered from injury but is on the bench.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the front line, Real Madrid played with a 4-1-3-2 system. Aurelien Tchouameni will play the role of anchor, shielding the defenders Ferland Mendy, David Alaba, Antonio Rudiger, Dani Carvajal. As initially predicted, Jude Bellingham is completely healthy to start. The English star plays as an attacking midfielder behind Vinicius Junior and Rodrygo. Supporting him on both sides are Toni Kroos and Fede Valverde respectively.

True to the nature of El Clasico, the match was tense and tense right after the opening whistle. However, the balance was suddenly broken in the 6th minute due to an unfortunate mistake from Real Madrid's defense. Alaba's poor clearance in the penalty area created an opportunity for Gundogan to take advantage of the situation and shoot the ball through goalkeeper Kepa's legs to open the score for Barca.

In the following period, the match was somewhat broken by the collisions between the players of the two teams. The referee had to blow the whistle repeatedly, so there were not many dangerous opportunities created. It was not until the second half that things became different. In the 52nd minute, the post saved Real Madrid after Martinez's header. Immediately after that, Kepa made an excellent save for the away team after Araujo's rebound.

Barca continued to dominate Real Madrid after that, with Cancelo playing the role of a terrifying drill on the right wing. But when they were still wondering how to make things difficult for Barca, Los Blancos equalized thanks to a moment of brilliance from a superstar. That person was none other than Bellingham. In the 68th minute, with the ball outside the penalty area, Bellingham fired a powerful cannon. The ball hit the outside of his foot, swerved and then went straight into the top corner of Barca's goal.

And when the clock struck the second minute of injury time, the England international once again made the world talk about him with a close-range tap-in that brought a 2-1 comeback victory for Real Madrid. To be fair, Los Blancos did not play better than Barca, and could even be called worse, but still won 3 points thanks to the huge difference from Bellingham.

This dramatic victory helped Real Madrid top La Liga 2023/24 with 28 points, equal to Girona but with a better goal difference. Meanwhile, Barca remained in 3rd place with 24 points, and Xavi's team finally broke their unbeaten streak.

Line-up
Barca:Ter Stegen, Cancelo (Yamal 77'), Araujo, Christensen, Balde, Gundogan, Martinez, Gavi, Lopez (Romeu 72'), Torres (Lewandowski 61'), Felix (Raphinha 77').
Real Madrid:Arrizabalaga, Carvajal, Rudiger, Alaba, Mendy (Camavinga 52'), Tchouameni, Kroos (Modric 63'), Valverde, Bellingham, Vinicius Jr (Vazquez 90'+5), Rodrygo (Joselu 63').

La Liga 2023/24 standings