El Clasico: 3 reasons why Real Madrid lost 5-1 to Barcelona

It was an enthralling encounter as Barcelona took apart Julen Lopetegui's Real Madrid at the Camp Nou, and Barcelona just proved too much for Los Blancos to handle. Thibaut Courtois saved it from being a cricket score as Barcelona won 5-1 on the night.

Real were utterly embarrassed and outplayed on the night, and except for a bright start to the second half, it was pretty much Barcelona cutting through Real Madrid at will and it was a historical result.

Jordi Alba collected a beautiful pass from Ivan Rakitic in the 11th minute to set up Phillipe Coutinho to get the party started, and the first half was completely dominated by Barcelona as they were creating chances at will and could have made it 4-0 had they been more clinical with their finishing.

Varane made a silly foul in the box in the 30th minute, and VAR was brought into action to correctly give a penalty for the foul on Suarez, who happily dispatched the resulting penalty into the net.

Real took off Varane at halftime for Lucas Vasquez who definitely helped in taking the game to Barcelona, who were in tatters at the back, and it did not take long for Real to pull one back through Marcelo in the 50th minute, and they kept up the pressure as Modric hit the post a few minutes later which could've made it 2-2 and could have drastically changed how the game turned out to be.

Barcelona brought on Nelson Semedo for Rafinha and Ousmane Dembele for Coutinho. The changes turned the tide of the game and in the last 15 minutes Barcelona hit the post once and scored twice through Luis Suarez and once through Arturo Vidal.

Suarez's hattrick made the evening absolutely humiliating for the men in white sending them to 9th on the table after 10 games into the season with just 14 points to their name. Here are three reasons why Real Madrid lost to Barcelona.

#1 The first half was lackadaisical

Courtois justified starting over Navas in a huge fixture by savin Real's blushes more than once

Barcelona was at home with the backing of 90,000+ fans and they were passing with a purpose to cut through the fragile Real Madrid backline who were leaving too many gaps to be exploited by the forwards, which they duly did. However, Real Madrid was absolutely lacking any intent to even try and press Barcelona and make them even slightly uncomfortable in possession.

They were lucky to have not lost the game in the first half as Courtois made a couple of key saves and Barca players fluffed more than one chance to score and put the game beyond our reach. Real were lucky Lionel Messi missed the game, or it could have been an absolute landslide of a football match.

#2 Isco, Bale, and Benzema were not reliable

Isco and Benzema seem to lack the hunger needed to be at the club. Complacent?

This may sound very harsh to people who play with these players on FIFA, but anyone who has seen them over the past couple of seasons knows that while these players are all capable of moments of magic, they blow hot and cold, being tremendous one week and anonymous the next.

Benzema missed several chances, including two clear-cut headers which could've helped Real pull back, and while he, like the rest of the team started the second half brilliantly, questions need to be asked of him and whether the club can afford to keep him at the club while having the aspiration to win.

Isco also fluffed several good chances and took too much time on the ball. He needs to be more decisive as he had several moments to score or set someone else up but got robbed off the ball way too easily and has looked off the pace since his return from injury.

What exactly was going through the mind of the top hierarchy when they decided to give these players the helm after Christiano Ronaldo's departure is unclear at the moment, but surely they could have done something better than buying a teenager from Brazil and Mariano (who hasn't been given a fair shot but cannot possibly replicate his exploits in France here even at his best).

There need to be some serious questions asked of these stars in the coming few weeks, and it is more than evident now that Real Madrid is gonna need a massive overhaul to return to their former glory.

It could be a while before we see Los Blancos lift any silverware unless they decide to go on another crazy Champions league run to try and save the season like last year, which even if they do win, the chasm between them and other top European clubs grows larger and larger every transfer window they don't invest in their aging squad, while their competitors keep strengthening.

#3 Julen Lopetegui getting it spectacularly wrong

Julen Lopetegui keeps selecting a starting 11 that baffles me every week as he always seems to be favoring the big names instead of people in better form and more hunger to try and impose themselves on the match.

In my first piece, I wrote about how Dani Ceballos starting tonight could be absolutely magnificent, and he was an unused substitute despite showing better form than a lot of players in the follow up to this game. He made the change and brought on Vasquez at halftime for Raphael Varane, and the team looked the better for it, but instead of pressing on and mounting the pressure on Barcelona, he did not make another change till Real were down by 2 goals again with 14 minutes to go.

Sure, a lot of things out of his control have gone against him, but what he does have in control is the squad selection, and I felt he would be the coach to make the tough calls and bench the underperforming stars for people like Ceballos,Mariano, Vinicius etc. who are raring to go but have been denied minutes by the presence of more established names in world football.

Things are dire at Real Madrid, and sadly this could have been Julen's last game in charge or the one that seals his fate as I don't believe the board would feel after tonight's result that he is the right man to usher this club in a new era.

Edited by Nishant Jayaram