Barcelona hammer Real Madrid 4-0

“This victory is glorious, especially in the way that it came about”, said Barcelona boss Luis Enrique after the game.

“It’s our eternal rival”. It’s important to win here, above all, because of the happiness that a win like this creates for our fans.

“The other day I said that the only thing we were interested in is ourselves”.

Real Madrid were jeered off at half time and then at full-time as Rafa Benitez’s first meeting with Barcelona ended in a 4-0 humiliation.

In an ominous sign for the former Valencia, Liverpool, Inter Milan, Chelsea and Napoli manager, angry fans at the Bernabeu roundly whistled their own players and chanted for president Florentino Perez to step down as champions Barca surged six points clear of second-placed Real after 12 matches. Towards the end of the half, Neymar made space on the left and latched on to Suarez’s ball after Iniesta’s spell-binding creativity at the edge of the area.

“We gave them few chances and didn’t lose the ball much, something that can generate problems for us”. Benitez said at a news conference.

“We made mistakes and we paid against a team that has top quality”. What we need to do now is close ranks and work hard. “It’s a long tournament and we have to try to recover these six points”.

A giant French flag was unfurled in the stands and the Marseillaise played during a minute’s silence before kickoff to honor the victims of the Paris attacks. Madrid needed to win to pull even with the rival in points and return to the top of the standings on goal difference. But the way Barcelona are playing at the moment, and more importantly the way Real Madrid are as well, it looks like the Catalans may well be en route to yet another title. He and Neymar now have 39 goals between them this season – Suarez has scored 15 goals in all competitions, while his Brazilian teammate has notched 14 times in 17 appearances.

The usually cautious Benitez had picked a galactico-heavy team, with all of Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale, James Rodriguez and Karim Benzema picked in attack.

Iniesta was brilliant for Barcelona and easily the man of the match as the 31-year-old-captain had a goal and assist and had a hand in all four goals for Barcelona on the day. He drove forward from middle of the pitch before slicing open the defence with a fine ball for Suarez to grab his 10th league goal of the season. In the seventh Neymar hit a right footed shot just outside the box that went high.

Replays showed that Neymar appeared to be slightly offside when he received Iniesta’s pass.