SETTABLOID

A former member of the defensive ranks at La Liga giants Barcelona has moved to defend the Blaugrana, on the back of their meeting with Real Madrid.

Barca, of course, marked their return to action on Sunday night, making the trip to Spain’s capital for the latest edition of El Clásico.

Xavi’s troops headed into proceedings in the knowledge that nothing but a victory would suffice, in efforts to keep the club’s feint title hopes alive.

When all was said and done, however, it was Real Madrid who emerged triumphant, thanking a last-gasp Jude Bellingham strike for an eventual 3-2 result.

The full-time whistle at the Santiago Bernabéu, however, has since been followed by an absolute wave of debate, surrounding some of the key decisions en route to Real’s Clásico win.

Two in particular – a penalty awarded to Lucas Vázquez, and a non-awarded Barcelona goal – have sparked the most widespread chatter, with those of a Blaugrana persuasion having made clear that they feel as though their side were essentially robbed of three points.

And one individual who has since moved to provide his two cents on as much comes in the form of Barca legend Gerard Piqué.

Speaking on the live Twitch stream of Spanish personality Ibai Llanos, former stopper Piqué revealed his take that the team of officials got both the penalty decision and ‘ghost goal’ call wrong:

“I think it’s not a penalty and you know that I always try to be very objective. Lucas Vázquez puts his right foot in such a way to impact Cubarsí. And then with the images, it is very difficult, but I think it is a goal.”

Barcelona’s 3-2 defeat to Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu last night closed the curtains on any small hopes the team had remaining in La Liga.

In a span of just five days, the Catalans have now seen their dreams in both the UEFA Champions League and La Liga crash and a trophy-less season is now certain.

One of the silver linings from the club’s otherwise disastrous season, needless to say, has been the rise of Lamine Yamal.

Once again last night, the youngster shone brightly against Los Blancos and single-handedly led the team’s attack.

Despite Real Madrid taking all three points against Barcelona last night and boasting several top candidates to win the Man of the Match award, La Liga officially declared Barcelona’s Yamal as the winner of the same.

To win the accolade in a losing cause in El Clasico only goes to show the impact the youngster had on the game despite the result not going his way.

In 90 minutes, the teenage phenom recorded three shots on target, a successful dribble, and completed 100% of his attempted long balls.

He gave Real Madrid’s Eduardo Camavinga a nightmare down the right flank and should have even won a penalty for Barcelona had the officiating been better.

Yamal’s biggest moment of the game came in the first half when he skilfully flicked the ball from a tight angle after a corner kick to challenge Andriy Lunin’s goal.

The ball, quite clearly, crossed the line and should have been declared as a Barcelona goal. La Liga’s criminal lack of goal-line technology, however, cost the academy star his moment in El Clasico and handed Barcelona an undeserved blow.

After a Lamine Yamal goal was disallowed by VAR in Barcelona’s 3-2 defeat at Real Madrid, Barcelona coach Xavi Hernández criticised the officiating in LaLiga, which does not use goal line technology.

Vinicius Jr and Lucas Vazquez’s goals helped Real equalise twice after Andreas Christensen and Fermin Lopez had put Barca ahead on Sunday.

Yamal’s effort in the 28th minute was reviewed by VAR for several minutes, as it appeared to cross the line before Real keeper Andrey Lunin cleared it. The goal was disallowed and VAR awarded a corner to Barca.

Jude Bellingham scored the decider in the 91st minute, securing Real’s fourth consecutive win over the Catalan side. Second-placed Barca trail by 11 points, a deficit that will be difficult to overturn with six games remaining.

Barcelona head coach Xavi refused to hold back, in taking aim at both the officials responsible for overseeing his side’s defeat to Real Madrid, and La Liga as a whole.

A member of the attacking ranks at Barcelona was handed the Man of the Match award on Sunday night, despite his side’s defeat at the hands of Real Madrid.

Making the trip to the Santiago Bernabéu, the Blaugrana went toe-to-toe with arch rivals Real Madrid, with the club’s domestic season essentially on the line.

When all was said and done, however, Xavi and co. were forced to kiss their hopes of an unlikely La Liga retention goodbye.

The big question surrounding Barcelona’s starting XI heading into this game was whether Pedri would be included, but Xavi eventually decided against it, as did Carlo Ancelotti with Ferland Mendy. The French defender had not trained the day before the game, necessitating Eduardo Camavinga to fill in for him. Carlo also chose to start Lucas Vazquez and Luka Modric, while Dani Carvajal and Nacho began the game on the bench.

Real Madrid made a very poor start with Lunin giving the ball away to Raphinha very early, followed by a Vinicius error that won Barcelona an early corner. Andreas Christensen scored from the poorly defended corner to put the visitors up 1-0 within the first five minutes of the game.

Real Madrid had a fantastic chance to level the score just a couple of minutes later as Tchouameni and Modric created a great opportunity for Vinicius, but he missed from close range. However, the Brazilian made up for it by equalizing from the spot in the 18th minute after Lucas Vazquez was brought down in the box by Pau Cubarsi. Barcelona nearly went ahead again as Madrid’s poor defense against corners continued. Lunin had to deny Raphinha’s direct corner on the line to keep the scores tied.

Following the defeat against PSG in the Champions League, Barcelona’s problems were far from over as they took on Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu for the second El Clasico of the season.

They did get off to a flying start, with Andreas Christensen scoring the first goal before Vinicius Jr converted from the spot to equalise after a controversial penalty call.

The drama did not end there, either, as a goal was chalked off due to insufficient goal-line angles, as Lamine Yamal scored from a corner.

The second half brought more drama as Fermin Lopez helped Barça take the lead before Vinicius Jr and Lucas Vazquez combined for the equaliser.

And as the game headed into injury time, it was time for Jude Bellingham to step up again, with his third goal in two league Clasicos this season.

This pretty much brings one of Barcelona’s most difficult seasons to a close as Madrid go 11 points clear on top of La Liga.

There was incredible controversy in Sunday night’s El Clasico fixtures between Real Madrid and Barcelona after the latter were denied a goal when the ball looked over the line.

Barcelona went 1-0 up at the Santiago Bernabeu through Andreas Christensen before Vinicius Jr equalised with a penalty.

But the Blaugrana thought they had regained the lead in the 27th minute.

Lamine Yamal produced a clever flick from a corner that caught out goalkeeper Andriy Lunin.

He reacted late and parried the ball away before Federico Valverde but it looked like it had crossed the line from multiple angles.

However, despite the protests from the visiting players, a lengthy VAR review ruled that the ball had not crossed the line. Incredibly, unlike all leading leagues around the world, La Liga does not have goal-line technology and so there was no definitive way of knowing.

In the Premier League, the technology sees the referee receive a signal to their watch telling them whether it is a goal or not.

et there is no such technology in the Spanish top flight, with El Larguero reporting that La Liga president Javier Tebas does not want to pay the ‘£2.6 million’ it costs.

It’s not the first time Barca have felt aggrieved by a lack of goal-line technology as a clear goal from Luis Suarez was not awarded against Real Betis in 2017.

Barcelona lost midfielder Frenkie de Jong to another injury in El Clasico on Sunday at the Santiago Bernabeu.

The Dutch midfielder is only just back from a spell out with an ankle problem and was hurt in a really strong challenge from Fede Valverde that left the Barca star in some serious pain.

De Jong was on the ground for some time before eventually being taken off on a stretcher with his hands over his face just before half-time.

It looked like another ankle problem for De Jong and his emotional reaction suggested that it’s potentially a serious injury that will keep him out for another lengthy spell.

Pedri came on to replace De Jong after being left out of the starting XI for the game, with Xavi opting for a midfield of De Jong, Ilkay Gundogan and Andreas Christensen instead.

We’ll have to wait for an update on De Jong but let’s hope it’s not a serious injury.

With Barcelona set to face Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu later tonight, the squad, led by manager Xavi Hernandez, landed in the Spanish capital a little while ago.

Upon landing in Spain, the Barcelona manager received a wave of support from the Cules that were gathered to welcome the team in Madrid.

Loud chants of ‘Xavi, stay!’ broke out when the club legend was spotted near the club’s hotel in the Spanish capital, reports SPORT.

Around 200 Barcelona fans were gathered at the gates of the Intercontinental Hotel on Paseo de la Castellana in Madrid where the Catalan giants will be setting up base.

And as soon as the manager stepped out of the team bus, the Culers shouted and cheered for him, showing their support to the head coach and even imploring him to stay.

Xavi announced his decision to leave Barcelona at the end of the season back in January itself. Since his announcement, though, the team has turned things around spectacularly on the field, prompting a change of sentiment around his future.