There are three things Real Madrid did well when attacking FC Barcelona’s high defensive line. The first one was playing with wrong-footed wingers, Diomandé and Güler. If you look at Real Madrid’s passing map, the most repeated passing combination between Real Madrid players was fullback to winger in wide areas. FC Barcelona’s pressing structure is designed to allow opponents to play to their fullbacks before pressing aggressively with a fullback-to-fullback jump, with everyone else close to the ball man-marked. One of the best solutions is to play to a wrong-footed winger, who can have better angles to switch play. As FC Barcelona commits many players to the ball side, the far side will always be vulnerable. Once you switch play, you can start making runs in behind. FC Barcelona’s midfielders defend zonally rather than dropping back into the defensive line. With the fullbacks jumping forward, the defensive line ends up with only three players covering the entire width of the pitch. It becomes almost impossible for the defenders to shift across in time when you switch play. One of the first teams to execute this so well was Bayern Munich in 2024, in a 1-4 UCL win. The second one, which is closely related to the first, was the runs from the second line made by your #8 and #10, Bellingham and Bernardo Silva/Camavinga. Runs from the second line are more difficult to track. You can adjust the timing to avoid being caught offside, and you also benefit from something that was key yesterday. When you make those runs after a wrong-footed winger has received the ball, you create space inside for the winger to take a touch or drive forward before switching play, clearing the space for them to operate. The third one was Mbappé’s movement. He has been making many more ball to feet movements, dropping deep to receive the ball, playing a lay-off and then running in behind. Mbappé doesn’t need to operate on the limit of the offside line. He is fast enough to start with a disadvantage relative to the defenders and still beat them. In October 2024, Mbappé was caught offside 8 times against FC Barcelona. Yesterday, in October 2026, he was caught offside only 1. There is something interesting about how often teams get caught offside against FC Barcelona’s high line. In Flick’s first season, opponents averaged 4.76 offsides per game. In his second season, that figure dropped to 4.32. This season, it currently stands at 3.22. The way Hansi Flick wants his team to press and defend with a high line creates a unique scenario. Many teams are not prepared to deal with it. Of course, it is normal for teams to find better ways to run in behind as each season goes by. However, it is not that simple. You cannot explain how to beat a high line in two training sessions and expect your players to execute it correctly straight away in a game. It's similar to what Guardiola used to say about how difficult it was to play against Gasperini's Atalanta. The problem is that you rarely face opponents who play like this, so even if you prepare for it in training, it is not a game scenario your players are used to experiencing. Think about it: given Barcelona’s counter-pressing and the amount of possession they have, you might only get a few opportunities per game to run in behind. You need to be extremely precise with those opportunities in a scenario you are not used to. If there will be 10 teams in La Liga playing with the offside trap, then it's a different story. Anyway, if there is one coach who knows how to implement a detailed game plan and convince his players to execute it for a specific game, it is Mourinho. That is why he is so good in Champions League knockout ties and finals. I wouldn’t be so conclusive in saying that Barcelona’s high line isn’t working or is too risky. The problems were elsewhere. Being too vertical in possession before having time to reduce the distances between players affected Barcelona’s counter-pressing. Usually, FC Barcelona are pretty vertical, but they do it over much shorter distances. They first establish the necessary proximity between players and then accelerate the attack, which allows them to counter-press effectively if they lose the ball. Yesterday, they often tried to play forward too quickly while the team was still spread out. The game became too chaotic at times, partly because of Real Madrid’s man-marking in midfield, which pushed Barcelona towards a more vertical game. I think that by slowing down the tempo in possession and reducing their verticality slightly, Barcelona could have controlled the game better and avoided some of that chaos. Real Madrid might then have had 5–10 opportunities to run in behind instead of 10–15, to put it in numbers. Anyway, it was a quite equal game at the end of the day. A more proactive approach, FC Barcelona, against a more reactive one, Real Madrid. I prefer the proactive approach when it comes to winning a league, so I believe Barcelona should be fine in a long term.