Mbappe's Late Finish Gives Mourinho's Madrid the Clasico at Barcelona
Seven Lights
Kylian Mbappe scored in the 87th minute to give Real Madrid a 2-1 victory over Barcelona in the Spanish league Clasico at Camp Nou on Sunday, Jose Mourinho’s first meeting with Barcelona in 13 years back in charge of Madrid.
Mbappe’s finish, his 100th goal for Madrid and his 10th against Barcelona, capped a final move begun by Jude Bellingham and carried through by Eduardo Camavinga, who had entered as a substitute in the 79th minute, beat Pau Cubarsi and laid the ball back for the Frenchman, The Athletic reported.
Mbappe had opened the scoring in the 41st minute. A low cross from Amad Diomande was turned into his path by Gerard Martin, and Mbappe put the rebound in. Raphinha levelled after the interval, before Madrid’s late winner silenced the ground. Barcelona’s nine-match winning start in the league ended, with it their record of wins at Camp Nou since returning to the rebuilt stadium a year ago, and their first league dropped points of the season.
Madrid’s goalkeeper Andriy Lunin, who started in place of the ailing Thibaut Courtois, made a decisive save from Martin’s header shortly after the equaliser. Madrid’s full-back Marc Cucurella spent the match pressing Lamine Yamal, and the teenager squandered the best chance to level, scuffing wide at the near post.
“The world that loves football will have stopped to watch this and they won’t have gone disappointed; this was two teams that played to win,” Mourinho said. “I’m not going to let them have their heads on the moon.”
The result undoes a season opening that had begun to look settled in Barcelona’s favour. The hosts had been scoring more than four goals a game before Madrid held them to one. Mourinho, whose first Madrid tenure ran from 2010 to 2013, had his side organised without surrendering the counter-attack, and the club’s sources at the training ground note he has avoided the dressing-room power struggles that marked recent trophyless campaigns.
Madrid extended a run of five straight victories. Barcelona absorb the first league reverse of their season, with the title race reopened after a single matchday.