Real Madrid came out on top in the first “Clásico” of the season, as they beat FC Barcelona 2-1. Even though the scoreline was fairly close, it was a pretty straightforward win for Real Madrid.

Kylian Mbappé opened the scoring, thanks to a beautiful assist from Jude Bellingham, who intelligently lost his marker and poked the ball through for Kylian Mbappé to score one-on-one against Wojciech Szczesny.  The French striker has now scored six goals in his last four games against FC Barcelona, as they’re becoming one of his favourite victims.

Fermín López then equalized in the 38th minute, after Arda Güler lost the ball in an attempt to play out from the back. It only took Real Madrid five minutes to successfully react to Barcelona’s equalizer, as Jude Bellingham scored what would be the winning goal in the 43rd minute. The English international looks like he’s back to his best, as he also scored the winning goal earlier in the week against Juventus in the Champions League.

In the second half, Real Madrid were awarded a penalty, but Kylian Mbappé was stopped by Wojciech Szczesny. From then on, Real Madrid were able to comfortably see the game out, as FC Barcelona failed to produce big chances. It is true that they were missing most of their firepower in Raphinha and Lewandowski, but they still had enough quality up front to be able to at least create some danger in the opposing box.

Lamine Yamal produced the most underwhelming out of the front four, especially after having said made controversial statements before the game, as he failed to record a single shot on target.

Real Madrid are now five points clear at the top of LaLiga and are the big favourites to lift the title in May.

All images courtesy of LaLiga Content Hub