Jude Bellingham had a hand in both goals, and Kylian Mbappe continued his excellent run of form as Real Madrid beat Barcelona 2-1 in the first Clasico of the season. It was hardly a legendary iteration of this famous fixture, but two first-half goals from Los Blancos were enough to see off the short-handed Blaugrana.
Madrid thought they might have had a penalty early on, but saw it chalked off after Vinicius Jr was adjudged to have kicked Lamine Yamal, rather than the other way round, as the Brazilian burst into the box. Mbappe then had a goal disallowed for a narrow offside, but he wasn’t to be denied, and soon after Bellingham played him through and Mbappe lashed into the bottom corner.
Los Blancos then gifted Barca an equaliser as Arda Guler gave the ball away on the edge of his own box to allow an unmarked Fermin Lopez to ghost into the area and finish. But Madrid had more in them, still, and Bellingham made it 2-1 thanks to an easy tap-in after no one tracked the Englishman on a set-piece.
Xabi Alonso’s side had a chance to put the game away in the second half from the spot, yet Wojciech Szczesny responded, saving Mbappe’s penalty after a lengthy VAR review handed Madrid a fortuitous spot-kick. It was a rather quiet second half, otherwise as Madrid sat in while Barca, without the injured Raphinha and Robert Lewandowski, had few attacking ideas.
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