Former Barcelona president Joan Gaspart has jumped to Lamine Yamal’s defense and slammed Real Madrid captain Dani Carvajal after their El Clasico bust-up.
Kylian Mbappé and Jude Bellingham scored either side of Barcelona’s Fermin López as Real Madrid won 2-1 on Sunday, giving their arch-rivals bragging rights.
Real Madrid were five points behind Barcelona in the La Liga table, with much of the match dominated by Yamal’s comments that Los Blanos were “stealing and complaining”.
After the match against Bellingham, Carvajal and Vinicius Junior directed speaking gestures towards Yamal, who mocked the Spain international on social media, writing that “talking is cheap”.
Defending Barcelona’s young player in an impassioned rant about La Poséción, former Catalan giants president Gasparto said: “Who the hell is Carvajal? He was a great player, but he’s over. Why should coach Lamine call him when his comments weren’t even directed at him?”
Gaspart said Yamal’s early breakthrough at Barcelona had given rise to high expectations, adding: “They made the mistake of calling him the best in the world too soon. He could be, but he’s not there yet.”
Read: Vinicius Junior has only one place to go after bombshell ‘quit’ statement from Real Madrid
Former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger believes it was a “man against man battle in some departments” as Barcelona struggled against Real Madrid.
“Xabi Alonso balanced the team really well today. Overall, I would say it was a men’s against men’s team in some departments,” Wenger told beIN Sports.
“Real Madrid’s defensive performance, for example, was much stronger than Barcelona’s. Up front, Madrid always looked like they could score one more goal, while Barcelona looked hopeless up front without Robert Lewandowski or Rafinha.”
“After Mbappe missed the penalty, Barcelona had a lot of possession in the second half, but they never looked like they were going to score.
“I commend Xabi Alonso for the defensive balance of Real Madrid today, which he did very well.”
Wenger added: “We will focus on keeping the team balanced, re-motivating the team and setting ourselves the goal of doing better than last year.
Read: Rafinha criticizes Barcelona teammate Yamal for giving Real Madrid ‘extra motivation’ in El Clasico
“But when we talk about Barcelona, it felt like they lost one of their most experienced players, Iñigo Martínez, at the back.
“Today you can see that Mbappé’s defense on goal lacks maturity and experience.”
Speaking about Barcelona, Wenger continued: “Barcelona’s performance today lacked maturity in the decisive moments. When you want to play important games, it’s important to deal with the important moments of the game.”
“What did Mbappé do? He went into the game today thinking, ‘I’ll just make a run behind the central defender and at some stage I’ll score.’ And he told the midfielders to look at him every time they had the ball.”
“The pass from Jude Bellingham was great, but Barcelona didn’t have players who could make such a difference today.
“When you go home at the end of the day, that class, that special class, wins the game. Vision and decisive runs.”
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