‘Men against boys’ – Arsene Wenger slams ‘toothless’ Barcelona after Real Madrid defeat

Arsene Wenger questioned Barcelona’s ‘maturity’ levels after the side’s 2-1 defeat to Real Madrid, labelling a fiery Clasico ‘men against boys’.

Jude Bellingham assisted Kylian Mbappe with an exquisite through ball before directing home what proved to be the winner to ensure Madrid moved five points clear at the top of La Liga.

Fermin Lopez had looked to have dragged Barcelona back into the contest in the 38th minute, only for Bellingham to score on the stroke of half-time to restore Madrid’s lead and send the Bernabeu crowd into a frenzy.

The hosts had a golden opportunity to increase their advantage at the start of the second half after Eric Garcia handled the ball inside the box, but Wojciech Szczesny produced a fine stop to deny Mbappe from 12 yards.

Mbappe’s miss mattered not as referee Cesar Soto Grado blew his whistle to signal full-time, though, with Los Blancos holding firm to extend their winning streak to five matches in all competitions.

Both teams finished the contest with ten men on the field after Pedri and Andriy Lunin were shown red cards as tensions threatened to boil over in the closing stages of Sunday’s bad-tempered and highly eventful contest.

Reflecting on the match from the beIN SPORTS studio, Wenger applauded Madrid’s performance before taking aim at Barcelona’s ‘toothless’ and ineffective display.

‘Xabi Alonso balanced his team well today and overall I would say that it was a bit men against boys in some departments,’ the ex-Arsenal manager said.

‘For example, the defensive performance of Real Madrid was much strong than the defensive performance of Barcelona. Up front, Madrid always looked like they could score one more goal and Barcelona looked toothless up front with no Robert Lewandowki and no Raphinha.

‘Barcelona had a lot of the ball in the second half after Mbappe missed the penalty but they never really looked like scoring a goal.

‘The defensive balance of Real Madrid today, I give credit to Xabi Alonso for having done that very well.’

Wenger believes there was a clear lack of leadership and experience in Barcelona’s showing, not helped by the absence of Lewandowski and Raphinha – and the summer departure of Inigo Martinez.

‘You try to focus on balancing your team and on getting them motivated again, setting targets to do better than the year before,’ the Frenchman added.

‘But when we speak about the Barcelona case, I felt like they lost Inigo Martinez at the back who was one of the experienced players.

‘Today, you can see that the defence on the goal from Mbappe lacks maturity and experience.’

According to Wenger, the visitors ‘lacked maturity’ and were ultimately outclassed by the better team on the day.

‘The performance of Barcelona lacked maturity today in decisive moments. When you want the big games, it is about dealing with important moments of the game,’ he continued.

‘What did Mbappe do? He went into the game today and was thinking, “I will only make runs behind the central defenders and I’ll score at some stage”, and he told his midfielders to look at him every time they had the ball.

‘The pass from Jude Bellingham was outstanding and Barcelona did not have these kinds of players today to make this kind of difference.

‘At the end of the day, you go home and that class, that special class, wins you the game: the vision and the decisive run.’

In his post-match press conference, Madrid head coach Alonso reserved special praise for Bellingham, who produced arguably his finest performance of the campaign to date.

‘He was good both on the day against Juve and today, and even at Getafe,’ said Alonso,’ Alonso told reporters.

‘He had three very good matches, and we knew before the last break that he needed minutes to get going and get some feeling. He did better than expected after the break.

‘He’s a player who really knows how to transmit and engage. He’s had some very good matches.’

Asked for his reaction to the bust-up between the two sides towards the end of the game, the Spaniard said: ‘It was the timing and the tension on the part of both teams.

‘These clashes have always happened and are a result of the desire we have for each other.

‘We shouldn’t be scared by a clash, as long as it’s healthy, courteous, and respectful. It was the tension of an important match and a close result.

‘We didn’t concede too many chances, and I interpret that as normal. We shouldn’t overemphasise those tense moments. Everything has happened in the Clasicos , and we have another game on Saturday.’

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