Three takeaways for Ancelotti from Real Madrid 2-5 Barcelona | Spanish Super Cup | OneFootball

Real Madrid will hope to forget any existing memory of Sunday night’s Spanish Super Cup final against Barcelona for the 5-2 hammering will go down as one of their worst defeats in history.

Carlo Ancelotti’s men took the lead early on the night through a vicious counter-attack by Kylian Mbappe and put the Blaugrana under pressure. However, it did not take long for Barcelona to equalise and even go ahead.

The Merengues were then presented with a way back into the game after Barcelona’s goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny was sent off for a tackle on Kylian Mbappe. However, they could not conjure much from the man advantage they had been gifted.

Madrid Universal brings you three takeaways for Ancelotti from Barcelona 5-2 Real Madrid.

Defence goes invisible…again

Real Madrid’s defence has been shaky all season but often conjure up just enough to cling on and coast to victory.

As they did against Barcelona earlier this season, however, they collapsed once again last night and were abysmally poor from start to finish and the brunt of the responsibility for the defeat falls on them.

Antonio Rudiger and Aurelien Tchouameni once again failed to produce any cohesion in their partnership and looked fragile as a pairing. The Frenchman, in particular, proved to be a liability as his sense of positioning was often off the mark.

The manner in which Lamine Yamal cut through and past them for Barcelona’s equaliser highlighted Real Madrid’s poor quality at the back, and the acres of space Raphinha was offered for his header was reminiscent of the header Robert Lewandowski was offered in the last Clasico.

To add to the centre-back’s poor showing, Lucas Vazquez was horrendous at right-back and once again struggled to keep up with Raphinha.

The Spaniard attempted to foray forward and add numbers in attack but was simply not a match defensively as he could not keep up with the Brazilian’s pace or trickery. In fact, most of Barcelona’s counter-attacking goals were built up from his side.

Ancelotti has a lot to think about on the defensive front for his side were completely outdone last night. With many big clashes yet to come, such poor quality at the back will have massive consequences.

Vinicius’ off night

A night to forget. (Photo by Yasser Bakhsh/Getty Images)

Vinicius Jr. has been Real Madrid’s single brightest source of creativity and goals in attack this season. For the second straight game, however, he was toothless against Barcelona.

The left-winger simply offered no threat in attack and was pocketed by Jules Kounde on the flank. He failed to cut inside or dribble past the defence and barely created any threat on the night.

Ronald Araujo’s arrival onto the scene in the first half only further dampened his night as he struggled to keep up with Araujo and Kounde and his statistics speak volumes.

In 76 minutes, the Brazilian completed just 11 passes, had 34 touches and completed just one dribble. He did create two big chances but was abysmal compared to his usual sky-high standards.

Kylian Mbappe, on the other hand, was one of Real Madrid’s better players last night. His opening goal showed immense solo skill and he was often the only player in white with attacking intent – something for Ancelotti to hold on to.

Revenge gone wrong and a lot to introspect

If Real Madrid were hoping to exact revenge from Barcelona for the 4-0 hammering earlier this season, they could not be more far off from their objective.

Los Blancos have now conceded nine goals in two games against Hansi Flick’s side and have scored just two goals against them and the club requires deep introspection to see what is going wrong.

Real Madrid may well be ahead of Barcelona in La Liga, but their performances in big games this season has just not been good enough. The team can be excused for losing the final after winning two, but not in the manner that they went down last night.

The coming weeks will be critical in deciding how far Real Madrid go in the Spanish Cup, La Liga and the UEFA Champions League and the manager has a lot of questions to answer. After all, his man-management is now seriously under the spotlight.