'Real' Conquers 'Barca' and Denies Them a Historic Achievement

French star Kylian Mbappé gifted his team, Real Madrid, and their Portuguese manager, Jose Mourinho, victory in the Clásico against traditional rivals Barcelona, who were the reigning champions and league leaders, by scoring the two winning goals in a 2-1 triumph at the Camp Nou in the tenth round.

Mourinho halted Barcelona’s dominance, led by their German manager Hansi Flick, who had won six of their last seven meetings with Real Madrid, in the first Clásico since his return to the capital club.

According to Opta statistics, Mourinho became the third Real Madrid manager to achieve a streak of six consecutive unbeaten matches against Barcelona, following Miguel Muñoz (between 1962 and 1965) and Vicente del Bosque (between 2001 and 2003).

This victory provided a significant morale boost for the 63-year-old, who is reviving his career in Madrid after two modest spells with Turkish club Fenerbahçe and Portuguese club Benfica.

Real Madrid reduced the gap with Barcelona to three points, handing the Catalan side their first league defeat of the season and their second consecutive loss across all competitions, following their midweek Champions League defeat to French club Paris Saint-Germain.

Real Madrid’s win over Barcelona prevented a rare occurrence in the history of Clásico matches, as both teams entered the game with perfectly balanced head-to-head records, each having won 106 matches, with 52 ending in draws.

Had Barcelona won, they would have taken the lead in the overall head-to-head record, an outcome that had never happened before since 1932.

Real Madrid’s Portuguese manager, Jose Mourinho, expressed his happiness with the victory, praising his players’ performance and courage in handling the opponent’s pressure, and emphasizing that the team deserved the win that narrowed the gap with their rivals to three points.

Mourinho said: “First of all, it was a very big match, a high-level game. Certainly, the world that loves football stopped to watch it, and we did not disappoint them, because both teams entered the match to win.”

Regarding refereeing, Mourinho added: “The referee was great, but the VAR technology was asleep until perhaps the 70th minute. We deserved a red card for the Cancelo-Diomande incident, but overall it was a great match and a big victory, and the players deserved it.”

For his part, Barcelona’s German manager Hansi Flick did not hide his disappointment after the defeat but sent a notable message regarding the pressure of the fixture schedule and tight travel itineraries, noting that physical fatigue affected his team’s performance, although he refused to use it as an excuse for the loss.

Flick said: “Do you only watch the matches? We play here and there, and sometimes there are only two days between games.”

The German manager cited the difficulty of his team’s schedule, explaining that the Barcelona delegation spent three hours on a plane during one trip to Seville, before deciding to return to the hotel for the night, then heading directly to Paris last Monday.

He added that talking about schedule pressure after a defeat might seem like an attempt to find excuses, emphasizing that he does not want to justify the result, but prefers to discuss these circumstances when the team achieves victories, so that his comments are not understood as shirking responsibility.