{"id":20931,"date":"2026-05-11T00:48:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T00:48:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/20931\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T00:48:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T00:48:12","slug":"how-barcelona-dominated-an-indifferent-real-madrid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/20931\/","title":{"rendered":"How Barcelona Dominated An Indifferent Real Madrid"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is finally over. Real Madrid can no longer claim to fight until it\u2019s mathematically possible to win the league. This was a fight lost long before the El Clasico this Sunday at the Camp Nou. But Barcelona had the perfect evening planned \u2013 claiming it right in front of a Real Madrid side that was already down and out in every way imaginable.<\/p>\n

Barcelona\u2019s cumulative final third touches climbed steadily from kickoff, with both goals coming inside the opening 20 minutes. Madrid did chip away at the xT gap before halftime and briefly drew level, but Barca pulled away again after the break and never let them back in. By full-time, the gap was at its widest.<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"<\/p>\n

Trent Alexander-Arnold<\/a> ran things from deep with 16 progressive passes, more than double anyone else, plus the highest xT gain on the field. L\u00f3pez led progressive carries, with Raphinha<\/a> and Pedri<\/a> close behind. Pedri also topped longball completion at 100% and tied for the most ball recoveries on seven.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Marcus Rashford<\/a> dominated the final third with 33 touches there. Brahim D\u00edaz<\/a> completed six take-ons, when no one else managed more than one, and finished with a perfect pass completion rate. Gerard Mart\u00edn ended up with more touches than any player on the pitch.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Eduardo Camavinga<\/a> matched a few of Barca\u2019s midfielders on carries, and Aurelien Tchouam\u00e9ni won four aerial duels, more than anyone. Antonio R\u00fcdiger held his own on longballs. These are decent individual showings, but they\u2019re scattered. Barcelona had numbers everywhere.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It is finally over. Real Madrid can no longer claim to fight until it\u2019s mathematically possible to win…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20932,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[92,737,2080,1593,223,82,936,664,94,83,17,720,1917,2420],"class_list":{"0":"post-20931","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-madrid","8":"tag-barcelona","9":"tag-brahim-diaz","10":"tag-eduardo-camavinga","11":"tag-el-clasico","12":"tag-fc-barcelona","13":"tag-madrid","14":"tag-marcus-rashford","15":"tag-pedri","16":"tag-raphinha","17":"tag-real-madrid","18":"tag-spain","19":"tag-spotify-camp-nou","20":"tag-trent-alexander-arnold","21":"tag-vinicius-junior"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20931\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}