22-year-old Real Madrid star fails to establish himself as a starting pivot with a horrible performance against Barcelona | OneFootball

Real Madrid had to endure a humiliating night in Saudi Arabia as they fell to a 5-2 defeat against FC Barcelona in the Spanish Super Cup final. With this loss, the Merengues have already missed out on the chance to add a trophy to their cabinet.

But while most fans would not have been too concerned with losing out on the Super Cup, how their team fell to their most heated rivals on the pitch would have left them sorry and angry at the same time.

Barring perhaps Kylian Mbappe, no Merengue player turned up for the game, as Hansi Flick’s men breached Los Blancos’ defence time and again without too much trouble.

On such a difficult night, Eduardo Camavinga was perhaps the player who underperformed the most in this game, even though he started in his preferred midfield pivot position as Aurelien Tchouameni once again started in defence.

The most embarrassing highlight for the Frenchman from this game would definitely have been him kicking Gavi inside the Real Madrid box with the ball nowhere near his foot. The referee pointed to the spot after consulting the VAR, and Lewandowski put his side ahead on the scoreboard after scoring from the ensuing penalty.

Even though he lasted only 45 minutes on the pitch, this was a long night for Camavinga. Sofascore statistics show that he only got 19 touches on the ball, as the Merengues remained docked in their half for most part of the half after going ahead early with a Kylian Mbappe goal.

During this first half, the French midfielder won only 3 of the 12 ground duels he was engaged in and committed 4 fouls. Furthermore, he was dribbled past rather easily, with the Blaugranes going past him 5 times in these 45 minutes.

While Camavinga was able to complete 100% of his passes, he only attempted 12 passes on the night, and his only shot also did not land on goal.

The fact that made this performance even worse was that the midfielder has been a rather reliable player for most part of the season. In the last El Clasico, which the Merengues lost with a 4-0 scoreline, he was the only bright spot in an otherwise damp performance from the entire team.

Thus, one can argue that this was only an off night for him and he will get back to his best in the coming few games. But his performance, along with that of the rest of the team, cost Real Madrid a trophy. Hopefully, the team will be quick to bounce back from this setback, and get back to their best level to get their hands on the biggest prizes, i.e., La Liga and the UEFA Champions League.