How did King Arthur’s return help to finally break Real Madrid’s historic head-to-head advantage?

The Catalan giants have waited 87 years for this single moment. For 87 long years, Real Madrid were seen as the better of the two eternal rivals, having a lead in head-to-head Clasico clashes. But this Saturday, Barcelona finally did it – they have finally turned the tides and made history. As it now stands in all-time meetings between the Blaugrana and the Royal Whites, Barcelona have 96 wins while Real Madrid are on 95: a truly historic comeback for the Catalans.

But as if this was already not enough, Barcelona have managed to completely bury their rivals in the span of three meagre days. First, they eliminated them from Copa del Rey with a brutal 3-0 showing. Then, two days after that, they crushed their La Liga hopes by expanding their lead to a mighty 12 points, leaving Real Madrid with little to hope for.

This tactical analysis will use statistics to determine just how Barcelona managed another win against Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu, their 11^th from the last 18 matches in the hearth of the Spanish capital.

Lineups

Barcelona (4-4-2)

Starting XI: Ter Stegen  Sergi, Pique, Lenglet, Alba  Rakitic, Busquets, Arthur  Messi, Suarez, Dembele

Bench: Cillessen, Semedo, Umtiti, Vidal, Aleñá, Coutinho, Malcom

Coach: Ernesto Valverde

Real Madrid (4-3-3)

Starting XI: Courtois  Carvajal, Varane, Ramos, Reguilon  Modric, Casemiro, Kroos  Bale, Benzema, Vinicius

Bench: Navas, Marcelo, Valverde, Lucas, Asensio, Isco, Ceballos

Coach: Santiago Solari

Barcelona setup

Seeing how he beat Real Madrid 3-0 just a couple of days ago in the Cup, many would think that Ernesto Valverde wouldn’t have to tinker with his lineup too much. As the Ant himself admitted after the game however, the team might have won but the performance was still lacking. For that reason, he made a couple of tactical changes.

As far as personnel went, Barcelona made only two changes to the team that came out victorious at the Bernabeu in Copa del Rey. The biggest, and what turned out to be the most important news, was the return of Arthur Melo who assumed his position at the left side of the midfield trident next to Sergio Busquets and Ivan Rakitić.

The second change was Sergi Robe