Kylian Mbappé scored twice at Spotify Camp Nou, with Raphinha briefly bringing Barcelona level in the second half. Mbappé’s 87th-minute winner secured the points for José Mourinho’s side and ended Barcelona’s perfect start to their league campaign. 
Cancelo offered a more positive assessment of Barcelona’s performance than his coach and team-mate, arguing that Real Madrid had made the most of their opportunities.
“From my point of view, we were superior,” the Portuguese defender said. “But this is Madrid: they have few chances and they score. I think that, in general, we were the better team, and we have to react.”
Speaking to DAZN, Cancelo said Barcelona needed to review their mistakes before facing Alavés.
“We have to look at the errors we made and recover,” he said. “Sometimes we want to press high, but there are times when we need to control the game with the ball, keep possession, circulate it and create chances. We lacked a little of that, although we had more shots on target than Madrid.”
Flick refused to use fatigue or injuries as an excuse for the defeat, instead accepting that Barcelona had not played to their usual standard.
“I don’t want to talk about this when we lose, because then it looks as though you are looking for excuses,” the German coach said. “No, I have no excuses. I don’t accept excuses. This is the truth: today we were not fresh, and that is what we have to change.”
Pedri also acknowledged that Barcelona had struggled, particularly before the interval.
“In general, we did not play a great match. In the first half, we were not ourselves,” he said. “There were many things we could have done better.”
The midfielder felt Barcelona had improved after Raphinha’s equaliser, only to be punished by Madrid’s transition play.
“In the second half we equalised and we were looking better, but then their goal came from a transition we knew they could make and which we did not defend well,” Pedri said.
He added that Barcelona had been too slow in possession and had given the ball away too cheaply.
“In the first half we were very slow, we had many silly turnovers, and against teams like this you pay for those things,” he said.
Pedri urged his team to move on rather than treat the result as decisive in the title race.
“We wanted to win the Clásico in front of our fans, but this is a long season,” he said. “It is three points. You do not win a league here.”
Barcelona remain in contention, but their response against Alavés will be an immediate test of whether the lessons identified by Cancelo, Flick and Pedri can be applied.