Classic Barca walk over hapless Madrid
LUIS Suárez and Neymar continued their sensational goal-scoring form as Barcelona moved six points clear of Real Madrid at the top of the Spanish La Liga with a 4-0 thrashing of their bitter rivals at Santiago Bernabéu yesterday.
Barcelona even had the luxury of leaving Lionel Messi on the bench, but the Argentine did make his return from a twomonth injury lay-off half an hour from time and played a part in Suárez’s second and Barca’s fourth goal.
Suárez got Barcelona off to the perfect start after just 10 minutes and Neymar deservedly doubled the visitors’ advantage just before half time.
At that point, Neymar and Suárez had scored every one of Barcelona’s last 19 La Liga goals, but Andres Iniesta ended that run in style when he blasted a third into the top corner.
And Messi, Neymar and Suárez all combined for the latter to score a fourth before Isco sealed an embarrassing defeat for Madrid by getting sent off late in the game.
Despite just two defeats in 16 games in charge, Madrid boss Rafael Benitez’s job is now in doubt as the fans turned on club president Florentino Perez towards the end of the game.
The build-up to the match had been dominated by security fears after last week’s series of deadly attacks in Paris, France, which killed 130 people.
A minute’s silence was held to the tune of the French anthem La Marseillaise in honour of the victims before kick-off.
However, the sombre atmosphere quickly turned hostile as the home fans saw their side completely outplayed by Barca.
Sergi Roberto was rewarded for his great form with a start in the position normally occupied by Messi and he repaid Luis Enrique’s faith in him.
The Spaniard collected Sergio Busquets’s pass and drove at the Madrid defence before threading a pass through for Suárez, who coolly slotted home.
He should then have made it 2-0 midway through the half when he fired over from close range.
Karim Benzema started for Madrid for the first time since he was charged with complicity to blackmail and conspiring to commit a criminal act.
And after six weeks out, his rustiness showed as he failed to make a clean contact when presented with a great chance from Jeremy Mathieu’s slip.
Barcelona’s dominance was rewarded with a second before half time when Iniesta’s through ball was perfectly timed for Neymar and his effort squeezed under Keylor Navas. It could even have been three before the break as Marcelo cleared Suárez’s shot off the line and Raphael Varane blocked Ivan Rakitic’s follow-up effort.
The hosts started the second period slightly better as James Rodriguez forced Claudio Bravo into a brilliant save to his right.
But any hope of a comeback was emphatically ended by a brilliant strike by Iniesta as he latched onto Neymar’s backheel eight minutes after the break.
Suárez fired into the sidenetting in acres of space moments later as Barca threatened a repeat of their famous 5-0 mauling of José Mourinho’s Madrid five years ago.
To add to Madrid’s woes, Enrique then introduced Messi.
Cristiano Ronaldo was largely anonymous, but he had the chance to briefly restore some pride for Real only to see Bravo produce another fine save.
Messi got in on the act when his pass was flicked on by Neymar and Suárez took his time before chipping over a helpless Navas.
And Madrid’s misery was complete when Isco was shown a straight red card for lashing out at Neymar five minutes from time. — AFP