Barcelona vs Real Madrid: 5 Talking Points & Tactical Analysis of El Clasico

#3 Formation change pays off for Real Madrid but briefly

Marcelo scored five minutes into the second half

Raphael Varane seemed to be struggling in the first half (how often do you see the French defender struggle to keep up with Luis Suarez and beaten for pace?) and he was hooked off at half-time, possibly because of an injury.

On came Lucas Vazquez and suddenly it was Real Madrid who were controlling proceedings. Julen Lopetegui made his team deploy a back-three with Casemiro partnering Sergio Ramos and Nacho in defence while Marcelo and Vazquez played as wing-backs.

It was effectively a 3-5-2 formation and the change made Real more potent in attack while also managing to retain possession as Barcelona looked unsure of how to deal with the new system.

Vazquez was basically doing the exact same thing Alba did in the first half as nobody picked him out wide until it was too late and his crosses were quite effective. Real were able to counter and even put in a couple of decent crosses as Barcelona reeled from wave after wave of attack.

In fact, Barcelona were beaten within five minutes of the restart as Marcelo made a run into the box to capitalise on the chaos at the back. A free-flowing Real Madrid move involving Bale, Benzema, Vazquez, and Isco saw the ball fall to Marcelo who took a touch before firing it home.

But as it turned out, the move to a back-three backfired later on...