Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois has claimed that Barcelona’s El Clasico triumph at the Santiago Bernabeu last month was a ‘fluke’.
Speaking to El Capitan (h/t MARCA), Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois has dismissed Barcelona’s 4-0 victory over them at the Santiago Bernabeu in March as a fluke.
The Catalan giants put their arch-rivals Real Madrid to the sword in the final El Clasico encounter of the season last month. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang started the rout in the first half before Ronald Araujo doubled Barcelona’s lead.
Ferran Torres then added a third early in the second half to kill the tie off before Aubameyang completed his brace to clinch a stunning victory for Xavi Hernandez’s side. The result kept Barcelona alive in the La Liga title race, even though they still have a huge mountain to climb to stand a chance of beating Real Madrid to the crown.
However, Courtois has now claimed that Barcelona’s triumph over Real Madrid last month was nothing but a fluke, with his team enduring a bad night.
Excl. Courtois: defeat against Barcelona? It was a bad night, a very bad night, but we knew how to recover immediately. You don't have to think much about it, and I'm only disappointed for not having been able to offer a joy to our fans. pic.twitter.com/2vjQN4KEEe
— Ismael Mahmoud (@ismaeelmahmoudd) April 14, 2022
“It was a very bad night, but we recovered quickly because you shouldn’t have to think too much about defeats. I’m disappointed, of course, but I think it was clear that there is a before and after that defeat. If you look at our results and our performance it was a fluke,” he said.
Since the defeat to Barcelona, Real Madrid have recovered well, winning three of their four games in all competitions, which includes a victory over Chelsea in the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals. While Los Blancos did lose the second leg 2-3 at home against the Blues, they clinched an aggregate victory to qualify for the semi-finals of the continental tournament.
Real Madrid have another crunch clash coming up this weekend as they get set to take on Sevilla on Sunday night. A victory against Julen Lopetegui’s side would take the La Liga leaders another step closer to the title.
As for Barcelona, they are second in the table, 12 points shy of Real Madrid, with a game in hand. Following their UEFA Europa League exit, their focus will entirely be on finishing their league campaign on a high. Whether they can pull off an unlikely title triumph will be interesting to see.