Xavi Espart had worked his way into Barcelona’s starting lineup for one of the biggest matches of the season. Thirty minutes later, his Clásico was over.
The 19-year-old right-back was forced off injured against Real Madrid on 25 October. Alejandro Balde came on, João Cancelo moved across to the right, and Barcelona continued without the youngster Hansi Flick had chosen to start.
The score was still 0–0 when Espart left the pitch.
A day later, Barcelona confirmed the injury: damage to the syndesmosis joint in his right ankle following a collision with an opponent. The club estimated that he would be unavailable for around seven weeks.
It was an especially difficult moment for a player whose opportunities had been growing.
Five days earlier, Espart had scored against Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League. Now he had been handed a starting place against Real Madrid.
In less than a week, Flick had selected him for two matches that Barcelona could hardly afford to treat as experiments.
That is why the Clásico matters to Espart’s development, even though he barely played a third of it.
How Espart earned another major start
A week before the Madrid game, MATCHIQ had examined Espart’s performance against PSG.
Barcelona were trailing 1–0 in Paris when the right-back spotted an opportunity to run forward. Fermín López played the ball into his path, and Espart arrived in the penalty area to finish past Matvey Safonov in the 55th minute.
Two minutes later, he found Raphinha in another attacking position.
Barcelona eventually lost 4–2, but Espart had contributed something valuable. He had helped bring his team level and shown that he could join attacks from deep against an opponent capable of punishing defensive mistakes.
His opportunities had been building for months.
Espart made his senior debut in March and finished the previous season with six first-team appearances. He was brought into the senior squad for 2026/27 and had already played in different defensive positions.
September’s match against Levante was a reminder that his development would not be without mistakes. Espart made an error during a period when Flick had delayed a planned substitution. The manager later accepted responsibility for the timing of that decision.
The incident did not end the youngster’s involvement.
Flick continued selecting him, and the performance in Paris gave the manager another reason to do so.
Then came the Clásico.
Barcelona’s defensive injuries were an important part of the decision. Jules Koundé was unavailable with an ankle problem, Eric García was recovering from a thigh injury, and Andreas Christensen was also absent.
Those missing players created an opening for Espart, just as they had against PSG.
There was, however, another detail in the lineup that made this selection more revealing.
Balde was fit enough to be on the bench.
Flick could have started Balde on the left and moved Cancelo to right-back. We know Barcelona could use that arrangement because it was precisely how they reorganised the defence after Espart’s injury.
Instead, Flick began the match with Espart on the right and Cancelo on the left.
That does not establish that Espart had moved ahead of every senior defender in Barcelona’s plans. Role suitability and the absences of Koundé and García remain important explanations for the selection.
It does establish that Flick was comfortable giving him a starting responsibility in the Clásico when another full-back arrangement was available.
Barcelona had won their first nine league matches. Real Madrid were the opponents who could end that run. This was not an occasion where Flick could afford to select a defender merely to give him some experience.
Espart had earned a serious opportunity.
The thirty minutes that followed
The opening stages provided little time for a complete assessment.
The official match record shows Espart winning a free kick on the right in the tenth minute and conceding a corner in the 18th. Reports of his early defensive work were encouraging, particularly his anticipation against Yan Diomande.
Those individual moments cannot tell us how he would have handled Madrid’s attackers across a full match.
Barcelona were already dealing with pressure. Arda Güler had threatened early, and Joan García was required to make a save.
Then came the injury.
Balde replaced Espart in the 30th minute, and the young defender’s opportunity to demonstrate his value over 90 minutes disappeared.
Madrid took the lead through Kylian Mbappé in the 41st minute. Raphinha equalised for Barcelona in the 61st before Mbappé scored again in the 87th to secure a 2–1 away victory.
Espart was not on the pitch for either Madrid goal.
The result therefore cannot be used to judge his responsibility for Barcelona’s defeat. Equally, there is no evidence that keeping him on the field would have prevented those goals.
His performance against Madrid remains a short, incomplete sample.
The selection itself is much clearer evidence.
Flick had chosen Espart for the starting lineup of a match with considerable pressure and significant consequences. An injury, rather than a footballing decision to remove him, ended that opportunity.
His competitors will keep playing
For Espart, the next challenge is no longer an opponent’s winger. It is recovering from an ankle injury that interrupts a promising run of first-team appearances.
Barcelona’s estimate of seven weeks is a medical projection, not a confirmed return date.
Flick, meanwhile, must continue building his defence.
Barcelona face Alavés on 31 October and Aston Villa in the Champions League on 3 November. Those matches should offer further evidence of how the manager distributes responsibilities between the defenders available to him.
Balde and Cancelo can cover the full-back positions. Koundé and García will offer further options when they recover. The competition will continue even while Espart is unable to participate.
That creates an important distinction.
If Balde, Cancelo or a returning senior defender starts repeatedly over the coming weeks, it would be unreasonable to interpret those selections as Flick rejecting Espart. The youngster is injured, so he cannot compete for those places.
What matters is what happens once he can.
The previous MATCHIQ assessment identified a question that Paris alone could not answer: would Flick still choose Espart when his more experienced defenders returned?
The Clásico provided encouraging additional evidence. Flick trusted him to start another major fixture, with Balde available as an alternative.
The injury now postpones the fuller comparison.
When Espart is fit again and Barcelona have more of their senior defenders available, Flick will face a different decision. He will be able to select the youngster without being forced into that choice by a shortage of experienced players.
If Espart continues receiving meaningful starts against difficult opponents, the case for lasting first-team trust will strengthen considerably.
If he returns only when other defenders are unavailable, the Clásico may come to look more like an important temporary opportunity than the beginning of a permanent change in the pecking order.
Neither outcome has been decided.
What Barcelona already know is that Espart has progressed from a promising young defender into someone Flick is willing to start against Paris Saint-Germain and Real Madrid.
He earned those opportunities before the injury.
The next chapter of his Barcelona career will depend on whether he is offered the same responsibility when there is genuine competition for the position.
For now, his biggest test has been interrupted at the moment it was becoming most revealing.
Sources and previous MATCHIQ coverage