Real Madrid bring Barcelona's golden run to an end

Mourinho cracks the Barcelona code and ends their dominance on his pitch

Barcelona ended a week to forget by losing to Real Madrid in La Liga, after José Mourinho's side succeeded in cracking the Blaugrana's code, on their own turf and amid their own fans.

According to the newspaper Sport, Real Madrid have become the first team to storm Barcelona's stronghold at the Spotify Camp Nou in the domestic competition since its renovation.

Barcelona had not tasted defeat on their own ground in La Liga since the renovation of their stadium. They inaugurated the Spotify Camp Nou with a 4-0 thrashing of Athletic Bilbao, and from there the team racked up 18 consecutive home wins, scoring 58 goals and conceding only 11.

That remarkable run came to a halt in a Clásico in which Hans Flick's men fell well short of their best, though they did not deserve to lose either.

RAC 1 radio journalist Oriol Jové, who also counts the 3-0 win over Real Mallorca in the stadium's farewell match before the renovation work began, noted that Barcelona had put together a run of 19 consecutive wins at the Spotify Camp Nou on only three other occasions in their history: between 1958 and 1960, from late 1973 until late 1974, and between 2012 and 2014.

Since returning to the stadium, Flick's side had lost just one match on their own ground, against Atlético Madrid in the UEFA Champions League.

This is not the first game Barcelona have lost at their stadium since its reopening. Despite a perfect record in La Liga, the Catalan side fell to Atlético Madrid in the first leg of last season's UEFA Champions League quarter-final, by a score of 0-2.