Barça's 39-game monopoly ended by Real Madrid

Barcelona A first defeat in six months for Luis Enrique's side

Barcelona's unbeaten streak has finally been broken after a Spanish record 39 games.

Gerard Pique encapsulated the mood at Camp Nou on Saturday night, the defender jubilant after scoring the game's first goal but ending the match distraught.

Against the old enemy Real Madrid, and with the grand old stadium the noisiest it has been all season, the hosts were unable to prevent their monopoly coming to an end.

Not since the game against Sevilla in the Estadio Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan back in October had the Blaugrana tasted defeat.

This one came as a result of poorly management by Luis Enrique, the turning point being his substitution of Arda Turan for Ivan Rakitic.

The Barcelona coach wasn't helped by the fact that his trident were not at their scintillating best.

Suarez was sloppy, Messi didn't hit the right notes, and Neymar struggled to get past his man all night.

"Football is a game of errors." was Enrique's explanation to the press after the match.

Alongside his players, Lucho found the defeat hard to swallow despite the fact that it is likely to be irrelevant at the end of the season. 

Barcelona still have a six point cushion at the top of the league despite the loss.

Unbeaten records mean little to Andres Iniesta unless they translate into the hard currency of silverware and El Ilusionista was philosophical when telling reporters "In the end, we just want to win the league."

One of the most striking images from the match was that of Gerard Pique celebrating wildly after heading in the opening goal from a corner. 

It was a goal he had been craving ever since a glaring miss from Munir had denied him, and Barcelona, the glory of a 5-0 victory at the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu.

Pique shook with emotion, screamed with joy, pulled his shirt to his face and showed to the fans.

No-one in the Barcelona squad dislikes Real Madrid more than Pique and it showed.

Everything seemed to be going Barcelona's way.

However, minutes later, Karim Benzema, and then later Cristiano Ronaldo, scored to drastically change the Catalans' mood. 

Talking to Movistar+ after the game, Pique admitted that the victory was merited.

"We couldn't make the extra man count.

"After the red card for Sergio Ramos we had five bad minutes. Madrid deserved their win, they deserved the equaliser and then we didn't know how to see out the game."

Barcelona are however still alive and kicking in all of the three competitions that they are involved in and Pique urged his team mates not to be too downhearted.

The first defeat for another trident

The 2-1 defeat on Saturday also marked the first league defeat that the trio of Sergio Busquets, Ivan Rakitic and Andres Iniesta had tasted while playing together. 

When all three had started games previously, they'd only lost in Europe (in Paris and Munich).

Iniesta, who played the full 90 minutes, couldn't reach the same heights he did in the reverse fixture the captain agreed that they needed to put the result behind them and focus on the upcoming Champion's League match against Atletico Madrid.

"We are against a tough rival who we know very well" were his final words of the night.