The El Clasico last night was an event that the Real Madrid fans would be looking to forget as soon as possible. The Merengues fell to a 4-0 defeat to their fiercest rivals and saw their point deficit to Barcelona increase to six points.
Like the game against Borussia Dortmund, it was a game of two halves. However, as opposed to that game, Real Madrid put in a vastly better performance in the first half and could have gone into the half-time break with a two-goal lead had these goals not been ruled out for offside.
The second half was a completely different story, as Robert Lewandowski’s goal opened the floodgates for the Blaugranes, who ended up scoring four goals past the Merengues.
One cannot blame Eder Militao or Antonio Rudiger too much for these goals, as Los Blancos’ hunt for a goal left a lot of space for Barcelona to exploit, and Flick’s side took full advantage of the situation.
However, this match could end up having implications for Real Madrid beyond just the three points lost. As Diario AS has reported, one form in which these implications have manifested themselves is in the muscular problems that Antonio Rudiger developed in the latter parts of this game.
Suffering such problems in such high-intensity matches is normal, but it needs to be kept in mind that the German had not had any rest since the start of the season. He is the Real Madrid player with the second-most minutes (1267), behind only Federico Valverde (1302).
The former Chelsea defender is set to undergo more tests to get a clear idea of the problem he is suffering from, but if turns out to be something serious, the situation of the Real Madrid defence, which is already missing Dani Carvajal, David Alaba, and Thibaut Courtois, will become even more dire.
