Record-breaking Messi helps Barca extend their lead
BARCELONA have almost ended Real Madrid’s defence of their Spanish league title, and there’s still half a season to go.
Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez left Madrid staring at a 14-point deficit after leading Barcelona to a 3-0 win at the Santiago Bernabeu on Saturday.
Madrid still have a game in hand, but the gap already looks too big as La Liga approaches its midway point.
‘It is a loss that hurts,’ Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane said. ‘It is a very, very difficult match for us. But this is not over. It might look like it, but we can never give up.’
Barcelona increased their lead to nine points over second-place Atletico Madrid, who lost at Espanyol on Friday, with Valencia trailing by 11 points after a 1-0 loss at home to Villarreal.
Suarez struck in the 54th minute and Messi added a penalty 10 minutes later after Madrid’s Dani Carvajal received a direct red for stopping a goalbound header by Paulinho.
Messi also set up substitute Aleix Vidal to round off the commanding win in stoppage time.
Despite the standings, Barcelona coach Ernesto Valverde and his players aren’t ruling out a Madrid comeback.
‘I don’t rule out Madrid,’ midfielder Andres Iniesta said. ‘This is a long-distance race.’
But Barcelona are undoubtedly performing like champions-in-waiting.
The win extended their unbeaten streak to 25 matches across all competitions since losing to Madrid in the Spanish Super Cup in August.
That all seemed light years away yesterday with Barcelona resisting an early push by the hosts before imposing their will.
The match was a contrast in tempos: Madrid wanted a frantic, up-and-down shootout, with Cristiano Ronaldo having space to roam, while Barcelona wanted to hold the ball and let Messi pick his moments.
Ronaldo beat Messi for the Ballon d’Or this month but the Portuguese failed to make a decisive impact as Messi took his Clasico record to 25 goals in 37 matches and his season tally to 15 in the league.
After Barcelona shook off Madrid’s early intense pressure, helped by the more physical Kovacic, the Catalan club made Madrid look clueless.
Zidane defended his choice after the stinging loss. ‘I am here to take decisions ...nothing is going to change what I think,’ he said.
Ronaldo had an early goal disallowed for offside, before goalkeeper MarcAndre ter Stegen got his foot on a strike from the Madrid star to turn it past the post, and Karim Benzema headed off the post in the 42nd.
Then Suarez scored the opener. Sergio Busquets cued Barcelona with a forward pass for Ivan Rakitic, who pushed down the middle before playing Sergi Roberto wide. The right back’s one-touch pass found Suarez arriving from the left to drill his shot under goalie Keylor Navas.
Madrid collapsed after falling behind, losing ball after ball to Barcelona.
Messi seized the moment by playing Suarez clear. After Suarez hit the post, Carvajal used his arm to stop Paulinho’s header from going in — a decision that earned him a direct red card as Messi fired in the resulting penalty.
Trying to spark a comeback, Zidane sent on forwards Marco Asensio and Gareth Bale, who drew a save from Ter Stegen.
But it was Messi who reached the endline before finding Vidal to cap the win, as Barcelona won a third straight league visit at Madrid for the first time in their long rivalry.
The game came only two days after separatist political parties in Catalonia, whose capital is Barcelona, won a majority of seats in the regional parliament.
The only reference to Spain’s political crisis came from Ramos, who made a joke about Catalonia’s fugitive former leader, Carles Puigdemont.
Ramos quipped that ‘in Barcelona they will say I should go to prison like Puigdemont’ for using his arm to swipe at Suarez, an outburst that earned him a yellow card. Puigdemont has fled to Belgium for pushing forward an illegal declaration of independence in October.