Real Madrid 0-1 Barcelona: 3 key factors that cost Los Blancos the match

Another edition of El Clasico concluded last night and it was Barcelona that came out on top. The Catalan giants were victorious and continued their surge at the top of the LaLiga table with a narrow 0-1 win over Real Madrid. They are the favourites to win the title this term, with Atletico Madrid 10 points behind them in second place, and 12 games to go.

It was another win for Ernesto Valverde's side, who had already beaten their fierce rivals in the Copa del Rey semi-final’s earlier this week. The game was settled by a 26th-minute goal by Ivan Rakitic, with the home side having no response to that sudden move that gave the visitors the lead.

Though it was a comparatively better performance by Real, after their 3-0 earlier loss, it was not good enough to get them back into the title race. Barca simply cruised on with yet another win, and here are three reasons why Los Blancos lost this one.

#1 Santiago Solari is no Zidane

Even though Solari has done a much better job than his predecessor, Julen Lopetegui, clearly he is no Zinedine Zidane, and the struggles haven’t completely faded away yet. His side has not seemed like a threat to scare or beat Barca, and this has been evident by the fact that they have failed to defeat them so far during his managerial tenure.

The team has grown, but Zidane's side was a totally different team. Partially, that was due to the Ronaldo factor, and Real have failed to fill that void.

However, apart from that, the team was totally confident and played with the mentality of champions. This is something that is still missing under Solari and needs to be rectified if they wish to win more titles in the long run.

#2 Out of form Madrid attack

With Ronaldo leaving for Juventus, the Real Madrid attack was really weakened at the start of the campaign. Though they did recover to an extent, consistency has been a major problem for the team from Madrid.

Players like Bale, Benzema, and others have not really lived up to the expectations at times and have disappeared on instances when the team needs them the most. Vinicius Junior is still just 18 and is in his developmental phase.

Once again last night, there wasn’t a player who was willing to step up and make his chances count. They kept pushing forward with no end product. With nearly 64 minutes to find an equaliser, they failed to score even once and it ended 0-1.

Even the subs brought on, Isco and Asensio, could not do much, with the former barely utilised properly since the arrival of Solari. When you don’t score in a game, you can’t expect to win, and that was the case for Real Madrid in this game.

#3 Midfield loop-holes and an unlikely scorer

There were quite a few errors made by the midfield players right through the game. They were not just due to the poor play of their players themselves, but because of the quality of opposition too.

On the other hand, the Real players were so focused on keeping the likes of Messi and Suarez quiet, that Rakitic found some free space to score the goal that mattered.

Though the Croatian star is known to score goals at times, this was a really costly goal for the hosts to concede and it could have been avoided. The goal was created from nothing, as Sergi Roberto played a simple one-two with Rakitic.

It could have been totally avoided and had that been the case, Solari’s men could have taken back more from the game. It was a neck-to-neck encounter and a must win for Real, where a simple moment of magic proved to make all the difference.