It was a red card season at yesterday’s El Clásico for the Copa del Rey title. This season is definitely not Madrid's, as they lost the title by a late-minute goal from Jules Koundé in the 116th minute of extra time after a mistake by Asensio.
At least they were not humiliated in this El Clásico like in the previous two they played this season, losing 4-0 and then 5-2. This time, it was a 3-2 loss — to be fair, they did try. However, Madrid are also dealing with injuries: Antonio Rüdiger, who had his knees strapped; Jude Bellingham, who had his shoulder strapped after dislocating it in 2023 and has declined surgery (honestly speaking, Real Madrid's season is kind of over anyway — just get the surgery, Jude!); and Fede Valverde, who has been playing with injections.
Back to the El Clásico: Pedri opened the scoring after an assist from Lamine Yamal. However, Madrid equalized in the 70th minute thanks to Mbappé’s first direct free-kick goal of his career. Then, seven minutes later, Tchouaméni rose highest to head in Arda Güler’s cross to make it 2-1.
We all thought Remontada! Finally! I even had an article drafted immediately, but I guess Barcelona — or rather Yamal — had other plans. Yamal grabbed another assist, setting up Ferran Torres, who slotted it in.
That pushed the game to 30 minutes of extra time. For the first 15 minutes, neither side could find a breakthrough. However, in the 116th minute, an error by Asensio allowed Jules Koundé to score the winning goal.
Aside from Real Madrid losing, the real highlight was the red cards: three red cards to Madrid between the 120+3 and 120+4 minutes. Rüdiger and Vázquez were shown red cards while on the bench, while Bellingham was shown a red card on the pitch for arguing. From the looks of it, Rüdiger definitely didn’t accept the red card peacefully, as he had to be restrained from going at the referee — something that could definitely earn him an extended ban.
Losing the Super Cup to Barcelona, crashing out of the Champions League after getting humiliated by Arsenal, bottling a ten-point La Liga lead to Barcelona and dropping to second place, and now losing the Copa del Rey final to Barcelona — this might be one of Real Madrid's worst seasons.
Well, many clubs end their seasons more pathetically, but this is Madrid — they always aim for every silverware.
Hopefully, despite their losses, they will be back next season, bigger, better and badder.
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