Suarez and Neymar run the show as Barcelona thrash Real Madrid

Madrid’s humiliation was compounded by the red card to Isco, who lashed out at Neymar less than half an hour after entering the game, but they were in fact fortunate not to concede a fifth, with Munir El Haddadi squandering two glorious opportunities to round off an already stunning Barcelona victory.

Messi has not played since the end of September, during which time champions Barca have pulled three points clear of second-placed Real at the top largely thanks to the form of the Argentina captain’s fellow forwards and South American compatriots Neymar and Luis Suarez. “We all have to be responsible if the game doesn’t go well”. “There’s a long way to go, this isn’t decisive at all, but we leave here very satisfied”.

Both the half-time and full-time whistles were met with an avalanche of jeers towards Benitez and club president Florentino Perez from the furious home fans, and the boss conceded the morale of his players has been badly damaged.

With Lionel Messi only fit enough to start the match on the bench following an eight-week injury lay-off, Barca made light work of Rafa Benitez’s men.

Real Madrid had been playing very well at home this season and they had only allowed one home goal before Suarez made his mark in the first. In a sign of Barcelona’s dominance, the scorer of the third goal, Andres Iniesta, was applauded by some Madrid fans when he was substituted in the second half. “We’re not going to lose our heads, we’re going to train hard and look at where we went wrong”.

He added: “I decided it during the week and I wanted to get feedback from him and it was a relatively easy decision to make, and Leo also understood it”.

“Losing like this and against a rival like Barcelona hurts us a lot”.

Madrid had won four of its first five league games, outscoring opponents 14-1.

“Our objective was what we have now, to win as many games as possible, even with situation at club”, Luis Enrique said.

“Jamie Vardy has shown Luis Suarez-type qualities during his fantastic run of scoring in 10 straight Premier League games”, Mike McGrath of The Sun in England said.

“I did not see it like that”, he said. “What I’m most concerned about now is getting the team to recover mentally in time for the next match”.