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Barcelona suffered their first defeat in the Spanish Football League in 13 months at arch-rivals Real Madrid in an 11th-round El Clasico match on Saturday, following a humiliating 4-0 defeat at home.

The Blaugrana owe their victory to their top scorer, Dutch Robert Lewandowski, who scored a double (54 and 56), while Lamine Yamal (77) and Brazilian Rafinha (84) completed the goal feast.

The Catalan club have extended the gap between themselves and their traditional rivals at the top of the standings to six points. It ended a streak of 42 matches for the Merengues without defeat in the league.

Vinicius falls during the attack (EPA).

This was Real Madrid’s first defeat in La Liga since a 1–3 loss to Atlético Madrid in the league on September 24, 2023, before witnessing a dominant display last season that resulted in winning the league and Champions League championships.

The two teams played the match with their alternate goalkeepers in light of injuries to Belgian Thibaut Courtois, who replaced Ukrainian Andrey Lunin at Real, and German Marc-Andre ter Stegen, who replaced Inaki Pena at Barcelona. Brazilian Rodrigo was also absent for the hosts due to injury and Barcelona were also without several players such as Ferran Torres and Uruguayan Ronald Araujo.

Mbappe and his heartbreak after a botched attack (AFP)

Merengue star Kylian Mbappe played his first match in El Clasico following his transfer from Paris Saint-Germain last summer, but bad luck and wasted chances saw two of his goals ruled out for offside (23rd and 66th).

The match was very exciting and exciting from its first moment, as it was clear that the events would be open and full of events.

Armed with the roar of the fans at the Santiago Bernabeu, Real went on the attack early on, trying to take one-on-one chances from Mbappe, but he managed to raise the offside flag after putting the ball in. Outer net (3).

Real Madrid’s defense collapses horribly in El Clasico (AFP)

Barcelona absorbed the hostile environment towards them and got out of the defensive bottle and had a chance through Jamal, who was also tackled by Lunin, but his shot went easily to the Ukraine’s hands under pressure from Brazilian Eder Milito. (13).

After Mbappe laid a ball on the silver platter for Brazilian Vinicius, Real pressed again, leaving the Blaugrana fans gasping, Pena clearing from the goal line before the offside flag was raised again (16).

Mbappe fails to make his mark at football’s summit (Reuters)

Mbappe thought he had opened his El Clasico scoring record when Lucas Vazquez fed him a superb ball and the France captain entered the penalty area before sending the ball past goalkeeper Pena, but his celebrations quickly turned to disappointment after being offside. The call was made after the assistant referee returned to the “VAR” technique (31).

With the first half ending in a goalless draw with a clear advantage for the home side, it was reasonable to expect that Real Madrid would come closest to opening the scoring in the second half.

But what happened was different, as Barcelona grabbed a commanding lead after Marc Casado delivered a superb ball from the middle of the field that left Lewandowski, the last player to face Lunin, before the Polish shot from outside the penalty area into the corner. (56).

Leiva silenced the Bernabeu after scoring the second goal just 120 seconds into the first, rising high to head home Alex Bald’s (58) cross.

The double took Lewandowski’s tally to 14 in 11 La Liga matches this season.

Real looked to mount another comeback, as they did against Borussia Dortmund in midweek, when they came back from a 0-2 deficit to win 5-2, and wasted a number of chances, the most dangerous of which were through Vinicius and then Englishman Jude Bellingham. came

Lewandowski, on the other hand, was on his way to a hat-trick, but the crossbar prevented him from doing so (67).

The visitors took advantage of Madrid’s lead in search of compensation and Yamal was able to add a third in brilliant fashion with a shot into the top of the goal after Rafinha’s (77) unstoppable effort, before scoring a fourth. From a drop ball with a high kick (84).