El Clasico: Barcelona thrash Real Madrid 4-0

It’s not always that you can win with such superiority.

“We were better”, he said.

The scoreline also equalled Rafael Benitez’s worst loss margin as manager in his entire coaching career as he joined an unwanted club as the 5th consecutive Real Madrid manager to have lost his first Clasico along with Juande Ramos, Pellegrini, Mourinho, and Ancelotti.

Thankfully, with a three-goal lead just minutes into the second half, Enrique had the luxury to substitute Messi and allow him to shake a few of the rust off in a low-pressure situation. “We have to forget this and learn from it”, he told Canal Plus.

Whenever you lose, we all have part of the blame.

And Messi, Neymar and Suarez all combined for the latter to score a fourth before Isco sealed an embarrassing defeat for Madrid by getting sent-off late on.

Without doubt, this year’s La Liga will be won by Barcelona, there’s no team in the Spanish league good enough to match the quality of players they have in and off the pitch.

“We need to get over this result and focus on the next match as soon as possible”, Benitez explained, per BBC Sport.

A minute’s silence was held to the tune of the French national anthem La Marseillaise and a large French flag was unfurled by the Madrid fans before kick-off in honour of the victims before kick-off.

And he was Messi-like in setting up the opening goal as he drove at the Madrid defence before timing a ideal pass into the path of Suarez. Third-place Atletico Madrid, which plays at Real Betis on Sunday, is one point behind Real Madrid and seven behind Barcelona.

Real Madrid failed to produce the right level of commitment or desire required to win El Clasico, according to Sky Sports pundit Thierry Henry.

It was then the turn of Madrid two minutes later when Cristiano Ronaldo did brillantly to get past Javier Mascherano and then fizzed the ball across the face of goal but nobody in white could get on the end of the risky ball.

A third goal was almost added just at the stroke of half-time when Neymar sprinted past Danilo making his way into the Madrid penalty area and making a low pass to an onrushing Suarez whose shot was cleared off the goal-line by Marcelo. Neymar leads the league with 12 goals, one more than Suarez.

Barca’s dominance in the 231st meeting between the two teams, which prompted the angry Real fans to roundly whistle their own players and chant for president Florentino Perez to step down, was all the more remarkable considering coach Luis Enrique had started with a fit-again Lionel Messi on the bench. The Argentine playmaker had missed the last nine Barcelona games.

The visitors were up as early as the 11th minute as Sergi Roberto threaded through a flawless ball for the on-rushing Luis Suarez on right-hand side of the box, the Uruguayan finishing neatly to hand the Catalans the lead.

Neymar doubled the advantage five minutes before half time, when Suarez dispossessed Luka Modric and laid the ball off to Andres Iniesta. Replays showed that Neymar appeared to be slightly offside when he received Iniesta’s pass.