Barcelona Had the Ball. Madrid Had Mbappe.

Some matches are played for three points. Some are fought for a title. But when the Catalan giant meets the kings of Europe, football becomes bigger than a result and deeper than ninety minutes. Sunday night at Camp Nou was one of those nights that football lovers all over the world had been waiting for. Here every pass carries meaning, every goal writes a story, and every victory stays carved in the memory of millions.

Jose Mourinho won this Clasico by taking it in phases. Real Madrid sat in a tight block, let Barcelona have the ball, pressed man to man only when it suited them, and waited for the space they needed. When it opened, they hit hard: once after a long, patient move, once in a flash. Hansi Flick read the match well too. His team flooded the middle of the pitch to break Madrid's shape, and Raphinha's equaliser followed. But the match turned on one lost ball in midfield, two substitutions and Kylian Mbappe.

Barcelona began the season with a perfect league record and had 62 per cent of the ball in El Clasico. They made 18 shots, played 349 passes in Madrid's half to Madrid's 94, and lost. Real Madrid scored with two of their ten shots: a deflected goal at the end of a patient 19-pass move, and a nine-second counter-attack seven minutes after Eduardo Camavinga came on. Mbappe touched the ball only 36 times and scored both goals, the second his 100th for the club. It was Madrid's first win at Camp Nou in three years and Barcelona's first league defeat of the season.

Mbappe's three shots were worth 1.60 of Madrid's 1.94 expected goals, and Barcelona did not have a single shot in the last 14 minutes of play. Madrid played without Thibaut Courtois, who had flu, so Andriy Lunin started in goal, and without the suspended Vinicius Junior. Barcelona were missing Dani Olmo. Mbappe scored in the 41st minute, Raphinha equalised from a short corner in the 61st, and Mbappe won it in the 87th.

The two teams played in very different ways. Barcelona kept the ball and built from the back with short passes. Madrid sat in a compact block, hit long balls, and attacked fast the moment they won it back. The sections below go through each team in the same order: shape, build-up, attack, defending, transitions and set pieces.

Barcelona

Their shape: on paper, in the first half hour, after the change

For the first half hour Barcelona played a 4-2-3-1 with four at the back: Cancelo at left-back, Espart at right-back, Martin and Cubarsi in the middle, Rodri and Pedri as the pair in midfield, Fermin as the number 10, Yamal wide right, Gordon wide left and Raphinha up front. Against Madrid's man-to-man press, Rodri and Pedri dropped deep to receive the ball from the defenders.

In the 30th minute Espart hurt his ankle and Balde came on at left-back. Cancelo crossed to the right and played far higher up the pitch than he had on the left. From then on Barcelona attacked in a 3-2-5: Cubarsi, Martin and Balde at the back, Rodri and Pedri in midfield, and Cancelo, Fermin, Raphinha, Yamal and Gordon up front.

Build-up

Barcelona built from the back with short passes and almost never went long: 27 long balls in 677 passes. Joan Garcia made 24 passes and only two were long, and none of Barcelona's seven goal kicks went long. They lost only 13 of the 119 passes they started in their own third.

Madrid did not answer every goal kick in the same way. In the fifth minute they pressed man to man, each Madrid player tight on a Barcelona player. In the 13th minute only two forwards pressed high, with a line of four midfielders behind them.

The play ran through the middle pair and the two centre-backs. The most frequent passes of the match were Rodri to Pedri, Pedri to Rodri, Rodri to Martin and Martin to Cubarsi. Rodri had 105 touches, the most of either team. Barcelona were also patient: they had 24 moves of ten passes or more to Madrid's seven.

Attack

Barcelona's completed passes ended in the last third evenly across all three lanes: 63 on the right, 50 through the middle and 60 on the left. Madrid's went wide: 24 on the right, 27 on the left and only 8 through the middle.

The 26-pass move just after Balde came on shows the new shape. Barcelona stretched their back line wide to move the ball, then sent players into the middle of the pitch to break Madrid's compact block. The flood worked best in the first half: 10 of their 24 entries into the last third came through the middle, against 6 of 25 in the second half. In the 20 minutes between Madrid's goal and the equaliser, Barcelona had 0.51 expected goals to Madrid's 0.11.

The result was a lot of shots and very few good ones. Barcelona had 18 shots worth 1.19 expected goals. Six were blocked, seven came from outside the box, and only two were big chances: Yamal's miss just before half-time and Martin's header from a corner in the 65th minute. They had 36 touches in Madrid's box and still created less than 1.2 expected goals. Only two of their 14 crosses found a team-mate.

Yamal was the main outlet on the right: 76 touches, ten dribbles (four won) and five shots worth only 0.52 expected goals in total, none on target. He created no chance. Cucurella was given the job of stopping him and committed four fouls to do it, with Tchouameni's help in the middle.

Gordon was the best of the front three. Eighty-five per cent of his touches were wide and he made four chances, which is why FotMob rated him Barcelona's best player (7.90). Only one of the four came while Valverde was on the pitch; the other three came after Dumfries replaced him at 62'. Barcelona took Gordon off in the 85th minute.

Raphinha played through the middle. In the first half he had three shots and all three missed; in the second half he scored with the one that came from the short corner. Pedri made 87 passes at 89 per cent, four chances, seven recoveries and the assist for the equaliser.

Defending

Barcelona pressed high and often. In Madrid's own build-up they made a defensive action for every 5.4 passes Madrid played; Madrid made one for every 9.6. They won 15 of their 64 balls in Madrid's third, while Madrid won only 5 of 82 in Barcelona's third. Their defensive actions were at their highest in the first ten minutes, just inside Madrid's half. Flick said afterwards that the side wanted to press high but lacked freshness.

Transitions

Barcelona lost 39 of the 186 passes they started in the final third (21 per cent), and Madrid answered by going forward fast. One tactical analysis counted five Madrid counter-attacks to Barcelona's two. Barcelona won the ball back high themselves 15 times, which is why the press mattered.

Their weakest moment came at the end. The double change, Adeyemi for Gordon and Jesus for Raphinha, came one minute 50 seconds before Madrid's winner, and Jesus's lost ball in midfield was the first thing that went wrong in the move.

Set pieces

Barcelona had six corners. Five were crossed (Cancelo three times from the left, Raphinha twice from the right) and one was a short routine, which produced the equaliser. Martin's header from a Cancelo corner was the other big chance, and Lunin saved it.

Real Madrid

Their shape: on paper and where they actually played

Madrid started in a 4-2-3-1 and kept to it: Lunin; Valverde, Konate, Huijsen and Cucurella; Tchouameni and Bernardo Silva as the pair in midfield; Guler wide right, Bellingham in the middle but drifting left, Diomande wide left; Mbappe alone.

Madrid took the match in phases. Without the ball they were a compact block, mid to low, mostly in their own half. In the opening spell they were a line of four, four in midfield and two up front, close to a 4-4-2. The block sat deep in the first ten minutes, mid-height until the first goal, and deeper again afterwards. In the first ten minutes only 1 of their 11 defensive actions was in Barcelona's half; over the first half only 13 of 49. They pressed at chosen moments, mostly at goal kicks, rather than all the time.

In midfield they marked man for man: Bernardo Silva on Pedri, Bellingham on Rodri (and sometimes stepping up to Cubarsi), Tchouameni close to Fermin. Guler and Diomande closed the passing lanes inside. Valverde had the job of jumping on Gordon, and Cucurella of staying with Yamal for most of the match.

Build-up

Madrid had the ball 38 per cent of the time and played 226 of their 380 passes in their own half. They rarely tried to play through Barcelona's press: 50 of their passes were long balls, and 15 of Lunin's 33 passes were long. Their build-up was safe: Tchouameni completed 44 of his 46 passes, and Huijsen had the most touches of the back four (64, with 46 passes).

When they did build, they did it down the left. Cucurella had 93 per cent of his touches on the left and Diomande 90 per cent, and the most frequent Madrid pass of the match was Cucurella to Diomande. Valverde's switches of play to the left also helped Madrid escape the press, and when he went off at 62' they lost that outlet.

Attack

Madrid's attacks were quick and direct: about 30 per cent of their passes went forward by a good distance (Barcelona 15 per cent), and six of their ten shots came within 20 seconds of winning the ball or a goal kick. Their longest moves were 22 passes by nine players around the 55th minute and the 19 passes that ended in the first goal.

The pattern was to overload one side, draw Barcelona across, then use the other. Madrid made five big switches from right to left, all in the first half. The first goal is the textbook case: right, left, right, then Silva's long ball to Cucurella on the left. In the first half hour Guler played high and in the right half-space, with Valverde the wide man, which kept Cancelo pinned back while he was still at left-back.

They took only ten shots: Guler five, Mbappe three, Diomande one and Bellingham one. Four were big chances: Mbappe's volley over the bar at 33', his first goal, Diomande's chance just after 45', and his second goal.

Mbappe touched the ball only 36 times, fewer than any Madrid outfield starter except Silva. His three shots were worth 1.60 expected goals, 82 per cent of Madrid's total. He scored two and won four fouls. FotMob rated him 8.97, the highest in the match.

Diomande was the left-sided outlet, at 19. He had 66 touches, the most in the Madrid team, seven dribbles (four won), was dispossessed three times and made the cross that began the first goal. He missed one big chance in first-half stoppage time, and he did defensive work too, with six recoveries. Guler had 60 touches, five shots, six dribbles, the lowest pass accuracy of the regulars, and the through ball for the winner.

Defending

This was the core of the Madrid plan. In the opening spell, while Barcelona made their 25-pass move, Madrid were already in shape: a line of four, four in midfield and two up front, close to a 4-4-2.

Madrid cleared 30 balls (Barcelona 16), made 14 interceptions (7) and won 58 per cent of the ground duels. Tchouameni made 23 defensive actions, Cucurella 19, Bellingham 17 and Huijsen 15. Only 10 of their 130 defensive actions came in Barcelona's third. Barcelona's 18 shots gave Lunin only six on target to deal with.

Cucurella was asked to stay with Yamal and did, with four fouls and no card. Valverde played at right-back to deal with Gordon and had only 6 per cent of his touches in the last third: a defender's job. He played hurt for more than 40 minutes before going off at 62'. Bellingham tackled five times, won five fouls and won 13 of his 15 ground duels: Barcelona's four midfielders won 8 between them.

Transitions

Madrid lived on turnovers. They won 50 of their 82 balls in their own third, so every counter began far from goal and had to cover the pitch, and they did. Six of their ten shots followed a ball win or a goal kick within 20 seconds: Guler at 5' and 26', Mbappe at 33' (from a Lunin goal kick), Diomande at 45+2', Bellingham at 78' and Mbappe at 87'.

Set pieces

Madrid had six corners, five of them crossed by Guler. None produced a shot, and their expected goals from set pieces were 0.02.

How the goals came

Goal 1: the 19-pass move

Madrid won the ball on their right (Valverde, then Tchouameni), passed it back to Lunin, across to Cucurella and Diomande on the left, back to Valverde and Tchouameni on the right, and then Silva chipped the ball over the middle to Cucurella, high on the left. Cucurella found Diomande, whose cross was touched by Cubarsi and cleared by Martin straight back into Mbappe. Nineteen passes by ten players, 44 seconds from the interception to the cross. The chance was worth 0.50 expected goals.

Goal 2: Madrid's mistake in position

Gordon's cross was cleared by Cucurella for a corner. Yamal played it short, Pedri took it and fed Raphinha at the edge of the box with a disguised pass that fooled Silva. Raphinha shot low through Bellingham's legs, past Lunin's hand. Four seconds from the corner to the goal, worth only 0.08 expected goals. Madrid had about seven players around the six-yard area when the corner was played short. Valverde went off a minute later.

Goal 3: the counter

Barcelona had been pushing for a winner and had two thirds of the passes since the equaliser. Jesus lost the ball in midfield. Bellingham took on a man and won it on the Madrid right of midfield, passed to Camavinga, who gave it to Guler on the right touchline. Guler's through ball sent Camavinga running from midfield to the byline. He went past Cubarsi and cut it back for Mbappe. Nine seconds from the recovery to the goal, six touches, worth 0.96 expected goals. Camavinga had been on the pitch for seven minutes.

Corners

Twelve corners, six each. Madrid's six produced no shot. Barcelona's five crosses produced Martin's header and the short routine produced the equaliser. The short corner was the only variation either team tried.

Key moments

The match in numbers

Kylian Mbappe

Thirty-six touches, three shots, two goals, four fouls won, and 82 per cent of Madrid's expected goals. He has the highest rating in the match, 8.97, and the match award. Madrid defended deep, gave up the ball and needed only two good moments. Mbappe took both.

Barcelona's best-rated player was Anthony Gordon, 7.90, with Pedri close behind on 7.78.

Who made the difference

What this match told us