Pique and Mathieu Lay Foundations for Barcelona's Daring Clasico Win

Barcelona certainly had the momentum going into their clash with Real Madrid, but being an El Clasico, you're never sure of where the points will eventually end up.

It was a strange encounter that had its moments but never really sparked into life like previous recent games between the Spanish top flight's eternal rivals.

Perhaps dispensing with a "gung-ho" attitude was all part of Luis Enrique's game plan; to try and dictate the outcome from an entirely different standpoint.

Another Luis, Suarez, will inevitably grab the headlines after scoring his most important Barca goal to date; however, the two stars of the show for the Blaugrana were in defence.

Manu Fernandez/Associated Press

After a frankly horrific World Cup showing, Gerard Pique's confidence was shot to pieces and he was way off the pace, something that he later admitted to during an interview per Sport via Football Espana.

We saw in his general play at the start of this La Liga season just how badly affected he had been, and Pique was bad enough for Enrique to be well within his rights to bench one of the "untouchables."

Taking a hard line obviously worked because since his full-time reinstatement, Pique has been amongst the best players in the side.

His performances are of a level somewhere approaching his best, and against Real, he stood head and shoulders above everyone on the pitch, in a literal and metaphorical sense.

Alongside Jeremy Mathieu, another sterling performer on the night, the Achilles heel that has so often become Barca's downfall—a high ball into the box—was rendered moribund.

Not only that, but both were immaculate on the deck and in their timing of the tackle. Eight on the night, per WhoScored, was as many as the entire Madrid back line.

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Balls clearances against Real Madrid: Mathieu 6 - Pique 5 - Suarez 3 - Alba 2 - Iniesta 1 - Alves 1 #fcblive #elclasico [via culedefcb]

— barcastuff (@barcastuff) March 23, 2015"

Real remained frustrated for long periods of the game because of Barca's refusal to stand toe-to-toe with them, as has been the case previously. Barca's back four were content to allow Messrs. Bale, Benzema and Ronaldo to come at them, picking them off at will.

Bale in particular won't have had too many less productive games of football in his professional career.

Sitting back and conceding possession, especially to your fiercest rivals, has never really been part of the Barca blueprint, but that is exactly what happened on Sunday night.

WhoScored detail that Real had 48 percent of the ball throughout the 90 minutes, a figure that is almost unheard of against the Catalans these days.

Mathieu's solidity when called upon shouldn't be a surprise, but it's fair to say that a large portion of Barca's fanbase were a little underwhelmed by his purchase last summer.

His form has therefore been an unexpected bonus for some, but as Andy Brassell of ESPN notes:

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Mathieu had played out wide all of his career before, at left-back and left midfield for first club Sochaux and then Toulouse.

At 6-foot-3, he may look well-suited for a central role (as his adaptation to the position and his strength in the air have since proved), yet he always had the qualities of a great attacking full-back: speed, poise and culture.

Perhaps Mathieu's outstanding feature, as expressed now, is his elegance. Despite making his share of challenges, he rarely fouls.

In fact, only Andres Iniesta has committed as few fouls per game as the Frenchman among Barca's squad this season.

In a central role, Mathieu has metamorphosed from useful to essential. 

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Although Javier Mascherano remains Pique's partner of choice at the back, Mathieu has certainly put the cat amongst the pigeons with his quality of performance against Real.

His first La Liga goal, a superbly taken header from Lionel Messi's free-kick, evidences quality at both ends of the pitch, and there can surely be no argument now as to his importance to the side, even if he remains the wrong side of 30.

In the absence of Sergio Busquets, Mascherano enjoyed the comforts of his natural defensive midfield role and he too was happy with this "new" Barca, per Tom Conn of Inside Spanish Football:

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Football is everything, not just possession.  

This team always has a model and we respect it because it’s what we like.  But football has a lot of aspects: football is about pressure, suffering when you need to suffer and using strategy which has been very beneficial for us.  

We have to be a complete team like we’ve always been.

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No question that Pique and Mathieu made the team as complete as it's ever been on Sunday night.