Barcelona vs Real Madrid. Spanish La Liga.
Camp NouAttendance86,422.
Match report as David Alaba's long-range goal and a Lucas Vazquez strike see Real Madrid secure El Clasico win; Barcelona score late consolation thanks to sub Sergio Aguero; Barca condemn fans behaviour as Ronaldo Koeman's car was surrounded as he left after the defeat
Sunday 24 October 2021 22:19, UK
Goals in each half from David Alaba and Lucas Vazquez saw Real Madrid win 2-1 at Barcelona in El Clasico on Sunday, leading Barca fans to confront Ronald Koeman as he left the Nou Camp in his car after the game.
Alaba - making his Clasico debut - opened the scoring after 32 minutes with a thumping long-range strike, before Vazquez doubled the visitors' lead in second-half stoppage time.
Despite Sergio Aguero coming off the bench to score a late consolation for Barcelona on his Clasico debut too, Madrid hung on to hand Carlo Ancelotti his first managerial win at the Nou Camp.
As a result, Real went second in the La Liga standings on goal difference from Sevilla and moved one point behind league leaders Real Sociedad after their 1-1 draw with Atletico Madrid. Meanwhile, Barca stay eighth.
Following the game, footage posted on social media appeared to show Koeman's car being surrounded by fans as he drove away from the Nou Camp.
A crowd of supporters could be seen hitting Koeman's vehicle and angrily reacting to their latest loss as the 58-year-old tried to drive away from the stadium.
In response, Barcelona posted a statement on their official Twitter account which read: "Barcelona publicly condemn the violent and disdainful acts that our manager experienced when leaving the Nou Camp.
"The club will take security and disciplinary measures so that such unfortunate events do not happen again."
If there was a strange feeling in the Catalan air ahead of kick-off in the first Clasico of the La Liga season, it was probably because this was the first match between these two archrivals not featuring either Lionel Messi or Sergio Ramos since 2004.
All of which may have explained the lacklustre first half an hour, the standout moment being Sergino Dest's horror miss after seemingly being laid a goal on his plate after good work down the left by Memphis Depay.
Maybe that lucky escape woke Real up, with the visitors taking the lead moments later after a fabulous breakaway goal involving Alaba, who won back possession on the edge of his own box, before Vinicius Junior and Rodrygo took the move into Barca's half.
However, Alaba still had much to do after being picked out by Rodrygo's incisive pass, with the Austria international finding the top righthand corner of the net with a swerving drive from the edge of the box.
Real deserved their half-time lead, although Gerard Pique was inches away from heading the hosts level from a corner 10 minutes before the break, with Barcelona manager Koeman then deciding to introduce former Liverpool midfielder Philippe Coutinho at the interval.
The second period was cagey, with Madrid largely playing on the counter as they went in search of a second goal, which the outstretched Karim Benzema very nearly provided with 18 minutes to go.
Koeman then thew on another ex-Premier League player in Aguero, but it was Real who got the crucial next goal in injury time after another pacy break involving substitute Marco Asensio, whose low shot across the goal was only partially kept out by Marc-Andre ter Stegen at full stretch, allowing Vasquez a simple tap in at the far post.
Aguero was on hand to side-foot home Dest's low centre for his first Clasico goal, but it was too little, too late as far as Koeman and Barca were concerned as the Dutchman became only the second manager in history to lose his first three Clasicos.
Barcelona manager Ronaldo Koeman: "I think the team did all they could to level up the match but we didn't have much time after going 2-1 down. We're disappointed with the result but not for what we did as a team.
"In today's match, we showed that we are not inferior to Madrid, but instead of being 1-0 up, we went 1-0 down and this had a huge impact on the match.
"But I think we showed that little by little we are improving and that we are closer to win a big match and that's how it is.
"Normally in a Clasico, it means something more [than just losing three points] if you are Barcelona. I get this perfectly. But there's no time to cry about it because on Wednesday we have another match."
Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti: "I think it was a practical and clever display. We were good defensively, with the ball in the first half, we could have done better with the build-up from behind, we got some passes wrong, but very effective with our counter-attacks.
"Clearly this team has this quality and we have to take advantage of it. Nothing more. I am happy, we gained three points. It's been a difficult game. Barcelona's performance has made the match tough for us. It hasn't been an easy game and the fact that we won, it makes us happy.
"I think we are competitive. The team is very solid and our goal is to still be solid a bit farther down the road. This is what we plan to do, but we must consider that we played against a great team, which played a very good game and made our life difficult.
"But the fact that we were able to suffer all together, without losing control even when we didn't have the ball is a virtue of ours."
Both sides are next in action in La Liga on Wednesday, with Barcelona travelling to Real Vallecano (6pm), while Real host Osasuna (8.30pm).
