Barcelona 3-0 Real Madrid: Player Ratings

Defenders

Ronald Araujo – 6 (75 minutes)

I think it’s abundantly clear that we still need a right back who Xavi trusts completely, for as good as Araujo is, that’s not his best spot. Left a lot of space for Vini Jr to run into which is always dangerous. Although his ball distribution was excellent and some of his cross-field balls started Barca attacks. Also gave the penalty away.

Jules Koundé – 7

Gave away a couple of needless fouls, but he always did just enough and sometimes that’s all you need to do. Positioning wise, he was very good, decent ball distribution. Had a few shaky moments towards the end, but in his preferred centre back role, he did a good enough job.

Andreas Christensen – 6 (28 minutes)

Was replaced by Eric Garcia before the half an hour mark. Started well, showed good positioning, played deep to counter the speed of Real Madrid and was always comfortable on the ball. Not sure why he was substituted early as he didn’t appear to have an injury.

Alejandro Balde – 7 (75 minutes)

The one player who was willing to inject some pace into the attack, we didn’t see a lot of end product, but we did see a lot of intent. Carvajal really didn’t like Balde running at him and on a different day, he may have had more success. Another good outing for him in his return from injury.

Eric Garcia – 6

Came on in the first half and did a really nice job. He’s still not good enough in the air, but I’m still not convinced that he’s Barca quality. He doesn’t have the same positioning sense as some of the others at the club.

Sergino Dest – 3

I mean do I really need to pile on? He got Vni Jr against him and it was a complete mismatch. Vini glided past him like he wasn’t even there. Dest is simply not good enough to start for a team who have Champions League aspirations.

Marcos Alonso – 6

I didn’t actually see him do much once he came on. Wasn’t on long enough to impact the game.