Barcelona on Saturday brightened their hopes of a sixth La Liga title after humiliating Real Madrid with a stunning 4-0 victory.
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Los Blancos got off to a bad start when Luis Suarez opened the scoring after just 11 minutes in El Clasico and they were two goals down at the interval as Neymar doubled the Catalans’ advantage on 39 minutes.
Lionel Messi did not feature until 10 minutes after the break, following his return from a knee injury, by which point Barcelona had a 3-0 lead.
Rivaldo believes Madrid should follow Barca’s example of handing former players Pep Guardiola and Luis Enrique the chance in the dugout and replace Benitez with the former France global. His team had a stellar defensive record before their losses against Real Sociedad and now Barcelona.
They surged six points clear at the top with 30 from 12 matches and ratcheted up the pressure on under-fire Real coach Rafa Benitez who had the luxury of fielding the trio of Ronaldo, Gareth Bale and Karim Benzema but to little effect. Neymar and Suarez ensured Messi’s absence wasn’t felt in the attack as the duo grabbed three goals between them.
This victory will not be soon forgotten by Barcelona fans and Real Madrid will have to pick themselves up and not allow this heavy defeat to hurt them psychologically before their next game. The home supporters called for club president Florentino Perez’s resignation towards the end of the game, but it is Benitez who is most likely to be in the firing line. A third for the visitors had come on 53 minutes, courtesy of Iniesta, before Messi came on for Rakitic.
“I don’t like to single out any individuals and I don’t want to look for a guilty party”.
A turning point in the game was a chance that fell to Marcelo at the start of the second half which could have made it 2-1 and put Madrid firmly back in the game.
He said: “There is no way whatsoever that this kind of performance – we’re not even talking about the result – but the performance, will have no consequences”.
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Barcelona great Rivaldo has taken to Instagram to announce the identity of Real Madrid’s next manager following the Catalonians’ 4-0 demolition of their fierce rivals on Saturday. He immediately got into the thick of things as he was substituted on in the second half. “We both have the same objectives and it tastes all the better having been so superior”, said Enrique. It was a good team, we made mistakes and we paid.
