Barcelona’s Clasico win could be decisive in LaLiga title race, Fulham lose their cool vs. Man United

What a weekend in European football! Barcelona bested eternal rivals Real Madrid in the latest Clasico to give themselves a potentially decisive lead in LaLiga’s title race, while Arsenal put four goals past Crystal Palace to seize control in the Premier League before the international break. (Don’t write off Man City yet, though, as Erling Haaland continues to score for fun and notched a hat trick against Burnley in their FA Cup quarterfinal.)

Elsewhere, we had talking points galore in the Bundesliga — Sunday’s VAR-aided defeat for Bayern Munich means Borussia Dortmund now hold pole position in the title race — and with Man United, who benefited from Fulham’s self-destruction to advance to the FA Cup semifinals.

Napoli won again in Serie A, Lazio and Roma put on a fiery derby and Chelsea found their recent run of form halted against Everton in the Premier League. Oh, and Paris Saint-Germain lost for the first time at home in Ligue 11 with Lionel Messi in the lineup, prompting plenty of questions about what’s next for this club.

It’s Monday, and Gab Marcotti reacts to the biggest moments in the world of football.

The broad rule: if the number of games remaining is equal or greater to your lead in the table, you can generally think about putting the champagne on ice. I haven’t run the numbers on this — I’d assume there are analytics types out there who have — but it seems pretty reasonable.

It seems especially reasonable in Barcelona’s case after their 2-1 win over Real Madrid on Sunday night, which means the gap is 12 points — and not six — with 12 games remaining. Barca still have to face the third-, fourth- and fifth-place sides in the table. But those matches — against Atletico Madrid, Real Sociedad and Betis — are all at Camp Nou, where Barca have conceded just twice all season and won 11 of 13 games.

Barcelona are in decent shape on the injury front, too, with Pedri expected to make his return after the international break, which means Ousmane Dembele is the only starter sidelined for a significant period. And with no European football on the calendar — unlike with Real Madrid — it becomes easier to pace yourself.

On Sunday, Barca fell behind to Ronald Araujo’s freak own goal, but nevertheless pressed on (as you’d expect) and got the equaliser via Sergi Roberto just before the break. A draw would not have been a bad result, yet they continued to look more menacing for a good chunk of the second half, until Carlo Ancelotti’s substitutions put Madrid in the ascendancy. And sure enough, Madrid might have gotten the winner had VAR noted that Marco Asensio was fractionally offside. Instead, moments later, Barca went up the other way on the break and Franck Kessie got the winner.

Upshot? Had Asensio been less than an inch farther from the goal, Real Madrid would probably have won, the gap would have been six points and we’d be praising them for their patience and saying they deserved the victory. Instead, the gap is 12 points and yes, we can say Barca deserved the win. Because that’s football. Goals (and goals not given) change games.

Xavi deserves credit for his defensive matchups, again putting Araujo at right-back to counter Vinicius and deploying Jules Kounde in the middle, where he frustrated Karim Benzema. Those were two of Real Madrid’s most significant weapons tamed, if not neutralized, and it gave Barca a solid platform from which to operate. (Of course, every action has a counterreaction, and I suspect one of Ancelotti’s regrets is not being able to exploit the matchups, especially Benzema in the air against Kounde. Benzema is a phenomenal header of the ball and several inches taller than Kounde, yet he didn’t get that sort of service on the day.)

Ancelotti’s changes nearly did the trick at the end, but too often this is how Madrid has felt this season: they’ve been a team of moments and highlights, rather than a side capable of imposing themselves on a top opponent on the road.

Stranger things have happened in football, so you may not want to crown Barca just yet. But at this stage, nobody is going to take the 2022-23 LaLiga title from them — they’d have to throw it away themselves.

For an hour or so, Manchester United were tied up in knots by a Fulham side that deservedly took the lead at Old Trafford. United were at home against a side coming off back-to-back defeats and yet managed just five shots on goal, for a total xG of 0.40. They were also a goal down, having been outplayed by Fulham for long stretches.

Then it all fell apart for the visitors.

Willian blocked Jadon Sancho’s goal-bound shot with his arm, like a keeper might. VAR went to a review and awarded a penalty and a red card, as per the rules. Aleksandar Mitrovic reacted by putting his hands on the referee, manager Marco Silva wandered angrily out of the technical area, and both were sent off. Bruno Fernandes converted the penalty and two minutes later Marcel Sabitzer scored his first United goal to make it 2-1, before Bruno added a third in garbage time.

As self-destruction goes, this one was entirely unnecessary. Maybe Willian’s act was instinctive or uncoordinated; the irony is that had his arm not extended away from his body, he might have intercepted Sancho’s shot anyway, but the reaction of Mitrovic and Silva, both experienced operators, is hard to forgive. The video evidence was obvious, and there was no point in venting your fury at referee Chris Kavanagh — he’s not the one who asked VAR to intervene.

At 1-1, even a man down, you were still very much in the game given how well Fulham were playing. With nine men, there was no shot.

From United’s perspective this was a poor outing. Thankfully for them, it was overshadowed by the result and Fulham’s shenanigans, otherwise it might have been a talking point over the international break.