FC Barcelona beat Real Madridin the first El Classico of this season with an impressive 4-0 victory at the Santiago Bernabeu.
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When Real did create chances, they were thwarted by the inspired Claudio Bravo, who single-handedly ensured Barca would leave the Bernabeu with a clean sheet.
Real Madrid coach Rafa Benitez struggled to find explanations after watching his side humiliated 4-0 at home by arch rivals Barcelona in Saturday’s La Liga “Clasico“.
Luis Enrique’s side didn’t come out of the encounter completely unscathed however, with Javier Mascherano to miss Tuesday’s contest with a thigh problem that he picked up on the weekend.
Claims of teams being run by one man are extremely irksome for the most part but if anyone still thought Messi exclusively ran the show for Barcelona, they were heavily mistakened.
“I try to manage my group the best I can”.
“It was a very special day and we are the first ones who want to enjoy it and do it well”.
Luis Enrique stopped short of confirming a fit-again Lionel Messi will start against Roma, when a draw for the Spanish and European champions would be enough to secure top spot in the section with a game to spare.
With Saturday’s defeat, Real Madrid are now six points adrift of their bitter rivals Barcelona.
“We were solid at the back and I think it was more a case of us playing very well than Madrid playing badly”, he said. “What worries me is the team recovering mentally before the next game (Wednesday’s Champions League trip to Shakhtar Donetsk)”.
Isco came on for Rodriguez shortly after and initially gave Real some much-needed zip in attack, with Ronaldo, Bale and Benzema largely anonymous.
“With this pain comes an opportunity to exact revenge in a few months time and play the kind of game we wanted to play today”. The game against Barcelona marked only the second time that Benitez had all of his players available. We wanted to push, attack, get the ball fast. In the first game between these two in Rome, Roma were terrific defensively they held their own against the might of Barcelona and scored an absolute peach from distance.
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“Thinking about La Liga, there is still a long way to go and we need to do things as we were doing them when we were undefeated”.
