Real Madrid vs. Barcelona: Winners and Losers from El Clasico
Barcelona silenced the Santiago Bernabeu as they recorded a 4-0 win over hosts Real Madrid in El Clasico on Saturday evening.
A fast start for Barca saw Luis Suarez put them ahead inside the opening 10 minutes, with the away team growing in dominance as the game went on. Neymar made it two before the break and Andres Iniesta rifled in a third soon after the restart to kill the game.
Both teams went close thereafter, and Lionel Messi made his return from injury off the bench, but this game was over well before he had any impact—even if he had some involvement in the final goal, which saw Suarez score his second.
Here are all our winners and losers from the biggest game in La Liga this weekend.
Winners: Neymar and Suarez, Again
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Unsurprisingly, Lionel Messi was left on the bench for Barcelona after his recent injury problems, but the duo who have carried the attack without him—Neymar and Luis Suarez—continued in that vein in El Clasico, scoring once each in the first half to put the Catalan side in the driving seat.
They both linked with each other a number of times, with one high-quality move at the end of the first half almost producing a fantastic third goal, but for a Marcelo clearance off the line.
Neymar then set up Iniesta for the third, and Suarez himself ended the game with the fourth for Barcelona.
Losers: BBC
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Real Madrid's front three were put back in tandem from the start after the return to availability for Karim Benzema, but none of the three showed any capacity or inclination to work together in the slightest until it was far too late.
Gareth Bale delivered some good passes to Ronaldo on the counter-attack in the second half, and Benzema had the odd half-chance, but in truth, the troika worked individually rather than as a unit. They were very poor in their off-the-ball movement and in dropping deep to help out the midfield with possession.
Blame the players' lack of effort, the coach's decision to play them or their lack of fitness, but either way, BBC were very much outshone by two-thirds of MSN.
Winner: Andres Iniesta
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Andres Iniesta skippered Barcelona at the Santiago Bernabeu and completely controlled the match.
He was sublime in possession, helped change the rhythm at the right time and came up with a rare, but spectacularly taken, goal in the second half, smashing a shot into the top corner from the edge of the box.
Toni Kroos and Luka Modric never got close to him, he rarely wasted the ball in open play and his movement was as impressive as ever with his capacity to make space for his team mates to find him in a crowded and busy midfield environment.
Tellingly, Iniesta received applause from both sets of fans when he substituted near the end of the game, as reported by Squawka on Twitter.
Loser: Rafa Benitez
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Rafa Benitez reverted to the shape and first-choice XI he started the season with—4-2-3-1 with Gareth Bale as the No. 10 behind Karim Benzema—but with plenty of his starters lacking match sharpness, the switch didn't pay off at all.
Barcelona's superior numbers and technical ability meant the Catalan side swamped Real in midfield and without Casemiro in place doing the holding job, it was easy for the away team to continually pick up possession.
Benitez changed things around early in the second half with Isco coming on, but there was no real change in emphasis in how the team attacked or defended, and Real never came close to getting back in the match once they went behind.
Winner: Claudio Bravo
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Barcelona scored four and their outfielders were exceptional, but at the other end Claudio Bravo made several tremendous saves to earn a clean sheet and keep his team ahead at times when the game was much tighter.
A low save to his right from James Rodriguez was particularly key at the start of the second half, while Ronaldo, Karim Benzema and others were also denied by the Chilean.
Keylor Navas at the opposite end had been by far La Liga's best goalkeeper this season—but Bravo was arguably up for man of the match this time around, while Keylor conceded four, two of which he certainly could have done better with.
