October 28, 2025
Real Madrid had just won a fractious Clasico 2-1, goals from Kylian Mbappé and Jude Bellingham powering Madrid five clear at the top of LaLiga. On the final whistle, the Madrid players celebrated wildly, having lost all four Clasicos in the previous season, this was them telling Barcelona that they were back, that under Xabi Alonso, they were going to snatch the crown off Catalan heads.
As Madrid's players and fans celebrated, Barca's retreated to lick their wounds, but did so with a quiet confidence that felt a bit misplaced at the time. Marcus Rashford (who had had a decent game, assisting Fermín López for Barca's goal), for one, took to his Instagram immediately afterwards to post a pic of the Barca team huddling together, and part of the caption on the pic read: "It's a marathon, not a sprint."
May 10, 2026
Ahead of the second league Clasico of the match, the table had flipped. The sprinters were down and out, the marathoners powering on full speed ahead. A five-point Madrid lead had become an eleven-point Barca one.
Barcelona were in a good place, their squad united, everyone firing when it mattered. Madrid weren't. Aurélien Tchouaméni vs Federico Valverde captured headlines in the worst way possible, Xabi Alonso was long gone and replacement Alvaro Arbeloa looked out of his depth, Kylian Mbappe wasn't fit and the memes were incessant (and if you're not a Madrid fan, hilarious). When they strode out to a packed Camp Nou, they knew they had no chance of winning the title, but they also knew they could prevent something that had never happened before -- one of Real Madrid or Barcelona winning the league in a Clasico. For pride and the sake of history, they were here to spoil the party.
Nine minutes in, Marcus Rashford stepped up to make sure they did no such thing.
The loanee -- on 13 goals and 14 assists all season ahead of the match -- had started on the right wing, Hansi Flick using his pace and trickery to plug the creative hole Lamine Yamal's injury left them. No decision had been made on his future at the club, whether they would trigger the 30 million Euros option to make his move permanent, whether he would return to his boyhood club Manchester United, where under previous management he had had an awfully acrimonious exit.
As he set the ball down on the edge of the Madrid penalty box to take a freekick -- in that area commentators often say is too close for the ball to go up and come back down with sufficient power -- none of it mattered. Barca had started the game well, the crowd egging them on, and a goal here would send an already tottering Madrid spiralling down.
There stood four men in Madrid white ten yards away, one on the ground behind them, the best goalkeeper in the world covering the far post; Rashford didn't see how he could take a shot from there. He couldn't visualise the angles that might lead to a goal, nor did he have the confidence to just shoot from there. Led by Pedri and Dani Olmo, the rest of his Barca mates, though, urged him to shoot.
And shoot, he did. Taking two steps to the ball, he whipped it with vicious power - the ball arcing delightfully past the despairing dive of Thibaut Courtois and smashing into the side netting at the far post. The placement, the power, the whip... perfect. With the first direct freekick goal for Barca in a Clasico since a certain Lionel Messi way back in 2012, Marcus Rashford had given the home side a lead that they never let go.
Barca made it two nine minutes later, Dani Olmo backheeling a pass mid-air, on the volley, in the most outrageous manner, for Ferran Torres to smash it past Courtois from near the penalty spot. 2-0, and that's how it would remain as Barcelona 2025-26 became the first vintage to seal the league title and lift the trophy in a Clasico. The Torres goal was the cherry, though, for everyone knew the cake was done the moment that Rashford freekick went in.
"It's a marathon, not a sprint." Marcus Rashford made sure to put a full stop on that cold statement of intent.