While Karim Benzema was on a goal-scoring spree that helped Real Madrid win the Champions League and La Liga last season, opponents Barcelona were devising their own strategies to combat firepower with firepower, prolific forward with prolific forward.Â
Benzema scored 44 goals in 46 games in all competitions, averaging 0.96 goals per game, to become the favorite for the Ballon d’Or this year.
So Barcelona signed another of this generation’s most recognized number nines, Robert Lewandowski, who scored 50 goals in a Bayern Munich shirt last season.
When Real Madrid hosts Barcelona at the Bernabeu for the first time on Sunday, Benzema and Lewandowski appear ready to lead the line against each other.
The unbeaten rivals sit level at the summit of La Liga, with Barcelona top on goal difference and 34-year-old Lewandowksi leading the scoring charts with nine goals in eight games.
“Robert Lewandowski has been very influential this season for Barcelona,” former Barcelona and Spain defender Albert Ferrer tells BBC Sport.
“Lewandowski just does something to the team that they didn’t have. Apart from scoring goals and being in the box most of the time, he is very important – his movement, how he talks to players, how he tells them what space to occupy.
“He is basically for 90 minutes helping players, moving and creating spaces and telling players where they have to be and what they have to do. His influence is massive, not only because of the goals.”
Barcelona may be on the verge of exiting the Champions League at the group stages, but in Spain’s top flight they have conceded only once and Poland international Lewandowski has benefited from manager Xavi’s more direct approach and the supply from wingers such as Ousmane Dembele and Raphinha.
“They are very good at the offensive transitions, the counter-attacks, putting crosses into the box. Now they have a real finisher with Lewandowksi,” says Ferrer, who leads La Liga TV’s tactical analysis and will be covering the game in Madrid.
“In midfield they don’t spend as much time as they did, so they are pretty direct. Direct doesn’t mean long balls, but Gavi and Pedri getting the ball and straight away looking forward instead of sideways. They have become more vertical, more direct.”
