With three goals of his own, Vinícius José Paixão de Oliveira Júnior led an unstoppable Real Madrid squad to roll over the famed Barcelona team. The epic clash of these teams has been celebrated for decades, and this matchup was no shortage of excitement and entertainment, especially with Madrid pulling away for a final score of 4-1.
Madrid struck first with a splendid pass from midfielder Jude Bellingham to tear the Barcelona back line and slot Vinicius Jr. to a one-on-one with the keeper. Vinicius Jr. does not lose these types of situations, letting Madrid take the leg up early. In my opinion, it was an extremely poor effort by the Barcelona midfield and defense to let this sort of mistake happen so early. Communication of who needs to be stepping and defending on a secondary level should be figured out by a team of this caliber by the time the first whistle is blown. Of course, the combo of Bellingham and Vinicius Jr. is undoubtedly the hardest to stop in the Spanish league, but I expect more of an effort from Barcelona to prevent this from being done with such ease by the two superstars.
Only a short three minutes later, Real Madrid strikes once again to go up two within the first ten minutes. Madrid was quick off of the transition to get the ball to winger Rodrygo, who was able to cunningly slide a ball across the face of the net for Vinicius Jr. to once again score. The whole first ten minutes of the game have made Barcelona look like a C-tier children’s team pulled up to the big stage. The back line of Barcelona is a disgrace to the club and the country of Spain. To be beaten time after time in the first ten minutes of a championship game astonishes me. If Barcelona were to defend the way they were in the first ten minutes for the rest of the game, I would not be surprised if the game ended in a 10+ goal differential.
However, Barcelona woke up in the 33rd minute to make it a 2-1 game with a wonderful strike by striker Robert Lewandowski. A sensational volley puts Barcelona back in the game and turns this one-sided match up into an actual competition. This is what Barcelona needed much earlier. I am glad that Lewandowski was able to cut the slack for the team and give the squad a mentality check that they so desperately needed.
Although Barcelona tried to make a comeback, the fast-paced transitions of Real Madrid were too fast for Barcelona’s slow defense. The game ended in a 4-1 result where Vinicius Jr. completed a hat-trick, and Rodrygo was able to add a goal along with his great assist from earlier. I liked the way Madrid played, but I am very disappointed in the defending from Barcelona. If they want to keep playing at the highest level against these great teams, they need to be able to step up their defense game.
