A fantastic performance from Barcelona saw the blaugrana take down Real Madrid 4-0 at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium in this season’s first iteration of El Clasico.
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Barcelona were dominant throughout the match and by the 39 minute, Real Madrid’s net was bulging once again after a delightful chipped pass from Iniesta reached Neymar who finished the attack with a low shot that went underneath Real Madrid’s Costa Rican goalkeeper. Barcelona opened up a six-point lead in the standings.
Barcelona’s star player Lionel Messi made his return from a two-month injury layoff in the 57th minute and played a part in Suarez’s second and Barcelona’s fourth goal.
While Barca celebrated the result with their supporters, Real Madrid left the pitch to jeers and whistles and coach Rafael Benitez is now in serious danger of losing his job after just 12 games. But the emphatic cherry on top of this sweet Barca Sundae was the 24-pass build up that led to Suarez’s score-that was textbook teamwork. Iniesta scored his first goal since March 2014 with a sensational rocket that Keylor Navas could barely see.
“It was a memorable game, it will go down in history”, Barcelona coach Luis Enrique said. But a rocket-shot from Andres Iniesta did make it three at the beginning of the second half.
Lately, Barcelona manager Luis Enrique has leaned heavily on forwards Luis Suarez and Neymar, who have flourished since they were promoted to the lead actors from their supporting roles.
One of the chief architects of Real’s defeat was Suarez – but rather than gloat, the Uruguyan insisted that Barcelona’s 4-0 victory “was a cluster of many coincidences”.
Varane and Ramos made 10 clearances together, but Real Madrid’s meltdown came through their inability to stop their rivals off-the-ball.
But Barca soon showed their class and had a third on 53 minutes when, having collected the ball in acres of space, Iniesta played a neat one-two with Neymar and drilled the ball high past Navas. Marcelo chance at start of second chance is key point in game, if that was goal… we talked at half-time about getting back into the game.
Perhaps it was a gameplan that they shouldn’t track back to help out, but Gareth Bale, Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema left Luka Modric and Toni Kroos so isolated that the inevitable mauling occurred. The young midfielder had played like a veteran of a 100 El Clasicos in the first one he was starting at the Bernabeu. With three goals in his first three Clasico appearances, Suarez has already cemented his place as one of the Camp Nou all-time greats.
It’s still so, so early because we are only in November, and the league doesn’t end till May, but a gap of six points in November could prove to be pivotal when it is all said and done.
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Finally, and so as to continue a Clasico trend, at the 84th minute, Isco committed a frustrated and petulant foul on Neymar, well away from the goal, that was sheer aggression and earned the Real player a direct red card.
