After Dembele equals Xavi’s Clasico record, Gerard Pique sends 3-word message to Barcelona fans

Barcelona pair Gerard Pique and Ousmane Dembele have taken their respective places front and centre in the headlines, on the back of the club’s remarkable downing of Real Madrid on Sunday night.

The latest edition of El Clasico – Spanish football’s most fiercely contested rivalry – was of course played out a short time ago.

Heading into proceedings, it was hosts Real who were viewed largely as favourites, sitting pretty a full nine points clear at the La Liga summit, whilst riding high on the back of a 5-game win streak across all competitions.

In turn, despite the recent upturn in form being enjoyed by Barcelona, few could have predicted just what was set to come next.

As one-sided an affair as imaginable played out over the course of the 90 minutes at the Bernabeu, culminating in visitors Barca emerging on the right side of a whopping 4-0 final scoreline.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang continued his fine start to life in Catalunya with a brace, added to by strikes on the part of both Ronald Araujo and Ferran Torres, to round out the evening’s scoring inside the opening five minutes of the 2nd-half.

Barca are BACK! 🔵🔴

A stunning flick from Aubameyang for the assist and Ferran Torres smashes it into the back of the net to make it 3-0 🔥

An unbelievable performance from Xavi’s side at the Bernabeu 👏 pic.twitter.com/zTCaV6I4TF

— Premier Sports (@PremierSportsTV) March 20, 2022

Ousmane Dembele, meanwhile, too carried forth his recent resurgence by means of assists for both of the Blaugrana’s first two goals.

And, in the process, the Frenchman joined none other than his manager in the history books of El Clasico, as one of only two Barcelona players to notch two assists inside the opening half of action at the Bernabeu since the turn of the century:

2 – Ousmane Dembélé 🇫🇷 is the second @FCBarcelona player to provide two assists in a first half of #ElClásico at the Santiago Bernabéu in all competitions in the 21st century, after Xavi Hernández 🇪🇸 in May 2009. Stellar. pic.twitter.com/z1Oos803bP

— OptaJose (@OptaJose) March 20, 2022

‘Back’

On the back of the action coming to a close in Madrid on Sunday, it should of course come as little surprise to hear of murmurs beginning to spread like wildfire that Barcelona, following a lengthy spell of turmoil both on and off the pitch, appear primed to imminently reestablish themselves amongst the elite of not only Spanish, but European football as a whole.

And one individual evidently in full agreement with such an assessment is the aforementioned Gerard Pique.

Taking to his personal social media platforms in the immediate aftermath of his side’s Clasico rout, the Blaugrana icon unveiled a simple 3-word message, simply assuring that ‘we are back’:

We are back.

— Gerard Piqué (@3gerardpique) March 20, 2022

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