5 wayward shots: Lamine Yamal fails his Clásico test
On a night when Mbappé shone..
This was no ordinary Clásico defeat. It was a mirror that revealed many truths. Real Madrid celebrated a precious win, but the memories of that night kept haunting Barcelona's leading star Lamine Yamal, who walked away from the biggest match of the season with one harsh verdict ringing in his ears: "He did not rise to the occasion".
Kylian Mbappé was the absolute hero. At Barcelona, the spotlight turned instead into giant question marks over their rising talent.
Mbappé writes history as Yamal wastes chances
Real Madrid beat their rivals 2-1, a precious and deserved win carrying a purely French signature. Mbappé shone. He opened the scoring early, then settled matters with a decisive strike in the 87th minute after a telling pass from Eduardo Camavinga, the perfect performance.
Those goals meant far more than three points. Mbappé reached his 100th in a Real Madrid shirt in just 116 matches, hitting that legendary figure in one of the toughest, most pressured games of the season.
For Lamine Yamal, the picture could hardly have been bleaker. The young Spanish forward ended the match with a shocking line: five shots, not one of them on target.
Barcelona did not show up for the Clásico
Spanish analyst Marcos López put it bluntly on the programme "El Larguero" on Cadena SER radio: "For me, Barcelona's biggest defeat is that they were not the real Barcelona".
He praised Mourinho's genius in his preparation, then slammed the absence of any reaction from Barcelona's bench. "Real Madrid controlled the flow of play in the area that suits them, and they did so brilliantly. Even from the tactical touchline, Flick had no options to counter the plan Mourinho had put in place," he added.
The tactics were only part of it. López turned to the crisis of managing decisive moments, the same crisis that cost Barcelona against Paris Saint-Germain with players like Vitinha and Fabián Ruiz.
"Barcelona's first half was bad, very bad, and it is true that they do not know how to manage the match, and for me, this is a sign of a lack of maturity," he said.
Then came the verdict on the attack, and on Yamal in particular. "Neither Gordon nor Raphinha nor Lamine rose to the occasion," López said in a decisive tone. "Lamine played badly, and there is no harm in saying that".
