By the end of Barcelona’s last triumphant visit to the Santiago Bernabeu in March, Ousmane Dembele must have felt like he was walking on air; the world at his feet. Vinicius Jr., in comparison, could have been forgiven for moaning that he’d just suffered a sucker-punch, that life had just knocked him off course in pretty brutal fashion.
Given that the two wingers are likely to be key for their respective teams as El Clasico reaches Real Madrid’s majestic stadium again this weekend, it’s worth looking at their reactions to that remarkable 4-0 Barcelona win, how they’ve played, developed and processed the impact of such a dramatic night in the world’s greatest football match.
Back in March, with Barcelona trying to stage an unlikely late title push and looking good to beat lowly Eintracht Frankfurt in the Europa League quarterfinals, Dembele was in scintillating form and a determining factor against Los Blancos. Two assists to break the game, thanks to crosses which Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Ronald Araujo headed home, and a good role in the third goal meant that Xavi’s repeated, brave but somewhat surprising, blind faith in the France international was repaid.
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Vincius, clean through on Marc-Andre ter Stegen’s goal at one stage and generally one of Madrid’s livelier players, had built up to playing Barcelona — whom he’d ripped to shreds in a 2-1 win at Camp Nou six months earlier — with two goals and four assists in Madrid’s previous five LaLiga matches.
Now begin the stark comparisons from then until now — with Vinicius stellar, growing in authority and assurance; Dembele looking predictable, sloppy and gifting the ball away so much that he’s verging on being a liability. The World Cup-winning Frenchman followed up with just two assists and two goals in Barcelona’s remaining 11 matches — losing to Frankfurt and watching the 12-point gap between Xavi’s team and Los Blancos that night in March stretch…
Source : espn
