Barcelona (AFP)

Not up to snuff: the giants of FC Barcelona and Real Madrid, Liga leaders, left Spain hungry after their disappointing 0-0 Wednesday in a draft clasico, and must now reinvent themselves.

A scoreless draw, and an obvious observation: in transition, Real and Barça are no longer the two teams that have walked on Europe in recent years, with seven of the last ten editions of the Champions League won to them two.

"Lots of noise, little Clasico", headlined the Catalan sports daily Sport on its front page Thursday, the day after the match, continuing: "Equality in a duel where neither FC Barcelona nor Real Madrid were at the live up to expectations. "

"Zero combat", aligned Marca, the best-selling daily in Spain, taking up the lexical field of tensions that have enamelled the clasico around and inside Camp Nou.

- "It didn't do it" -

After a complicated start to the 2019-2020 fiscal year for Real de Zinédine Zidane, who had to put together a competitive team with a less luxurious squad than during his first experience on the merengue bench, and a gloomy autumn for Ernesto's Barça Valverde, the two monsters left in a goalless draw. At equal forces.

What we feared: two teams made timid by the sporting stakes and the heavy political context, little reassured by their respective draws last weekend (2-2 in San Sebastian against Real Sociedad for Barcelona, ​​1 -1 in Valencia for Madrid).

The two giants of Spain are bracing themselves on their achievements to complete their transition and integrate young people, like Rodrygo and Ansu Fati, the first Catalan-Madrid doublet under 19 to play a clasico since ... 117 years.

This time, the star Lionel Messi, crowned with a sixth Ballon d'Or on December 2, shone less on the lawn of his Camp Nou, and the French front center surgical of the "White House" Karim Benzema (who celebrates its 32nd anniversary this Thursday), was not decisive, despite a satisfactory performance overall.

"It didn't do it, that's how it is. We have to be satisfied with this point, even if we deserved better. I'm very happy with the attitude of my players, we had a great match", affirmed Zinedine Zidane, almost blasé at the final whistle.

"When you are a coach and you come out of a draw, you always tell yourself that there could have been an imbalance in your favor. If one of the two had scored, things would have been different ...", a for its part underlined the blaugrana technician Ernesto Valverde.

- A worrying 0-0? -

Should we worry about seeing these two giants neutralize each other without succeeding in scoring, and its coaches almost get used to it?

"I'm not worried about the lack of goals," said Zidane in the post-match press conference. "It's only today (Wednesday). Because before, we had a lot of matches where we scored. The important thing is to have had the opportunities, to produce the game, and we "We did lack a bit of foresight in the final meters to score. But I'm proud of my players," said "Zizou".

For his Barça counterpart, "it's more of a feeling of instability, we're not used to that". "There were times when we did not manage the pressure, where they dominated ... That is why we sometimes had the impression that they could score at any time", agreed Valverde.

"We had difficulties, we targeted them well. We will see, there are still a lot of matches ...", he evaded.

Starting with a last day of championship this weekend, before the Christmas break. Barça receive Alavés (14th, 19 pts) Saturday at 4:00 p.m., while Real Madrid welcome Athletic Bilbao (7th, 27 pts) at the end of the 18th day of Liga Sunday at 9:00 p.m., in an attempt to end this series of two consecutive draws.

Each hopes a false step of the other to take, finally alone, the reins of the championship. And arrive in a position of strength during a possible second clasico as of January 12 in the final of the Spanish Supercup, in Saudi Arabia, in the event of qualification during the semi-finals of these two giants on their knees.

© 2019 AFP