By Soren Schamberg
March 20th brought us another El Clasico being held at the Bernabeau in La Liga. As is tradition, El Clasico brings excitement and expectation. What was seen, was a rout. Barcelona won the game 4 - 0, with some nicely worked goals - A header from Aubameyang in open play for their first, A header from Araújo from a corner for their second, but their third is a good display of being first to the ball, field awareness and finishing.
The sequence begins when a high long ball is played from Barcelona’s defense into Madrid’s half. Madrids’ center back, Alaba attempts to play the ball on the ground to his midfielder, but DeJong gets to the ball first. A touch from DeJong to Dembele and then back to DeJong gets the ball moving forward into their attacking third.
DeJong slides a through ball to Aubameyang, but instead of making his own run, he cuts it behind his opponent into the path of Ferran Torres who was making a long run from the other side of the pitch. With one touch, Torres is able to put the ball in the back of the net uncontested by Courtois.
Because DeJong was quick to the misplaced pass, Aubameyang was aware of Torres’ run from the far side of the pitch and Torres’ finish, this goal looks smooth and effortless. Far from it.
By Soren Schamberg
