The rivalry between Real Madrid and Barcelona in women’s football has been rather lopsided. Las Blancas have won only one of their previous 25 encounters against the Catalan giants, losing 24 times with an aggregate score of 92-12. Their most recent encounter followed the same script.
Pau Quesada’s Real Madrid suffered their second heaviest defeat in an El Clasico, losing 7-0 to reigning champions Barcelona. Clàudia Pina scored a hat-trick in less than 30 minutes and registered a first half ‘poker’. Madrid, who have now firmly established themselves as the second best team in Spain, looked no match for Pere Romeu’s side.
The most recent encounters between the two sides have looked increasingly mismatched. Las Blancas have failed to score a goal in the last three games against the Blaugranas and have conceded 16 in that time. They have conceded four or more in 10 of their last 15 Clasicos.
Madrid had spent big for Swedish prodigy Felicia Schröder this summer and overhauled their squad in the hope of toppling Barcelona, who have lost experienced players this summer. Still, the gap felt bigger than ever on the pitch.
Real Madrid gave the world a crash course on how to not play against Barcelona on Sunday, so let’s at least try to learn something.
How to not play through opposition pressure?
Barcelona play a possession dominant system and use a high press without the ball. Their aggressive and coordinated pressing makes it difficult for the opposition to build up play from their own third, resulting in shooting opportunities from turnovers in dangerous areas. They try to deny the opponents time on the ball, rushing them into playing long or poorly-timed passes into dangerous areas.
Barcelona were on Madrid’s heel during the game, committing a number of players to mark all immediate passing options on their goal-kicks and forcing them to make a risky pass. However, committing a lot of players high up naturally opens up spaces in behind for the opposition to exploit.
Madrid didn’t seem too keen on doing that.
