Barca Chagrins Real In El Clasico (Video)
Barca thwarts Real 5-0 on Camp Nou
The only thing memorable for Jose Mourinho’s side was Cristiano Ronaldo’s push over Pep Guardiola. As for the Spanish players, they didn’t look like national team-mates. FC Barcelona thwarted Real Madrid 5-0 as Xabi and David Villa reminded of last season’s 6-2 embarrassing defeat on Santiago Bernabeu, while Mourinho conceded his biggest defeat ever, one which is the harder to swallow his side couldn’t put pressure on the Catalans. Almost the entire Real Madrid’s defense and midfield have been given yellow cards with Sergio Ramos leaving with red just minutes before the final whistle. The Catalans received five yellows instead. It’s been both a spectacular, but also a tense meeting between the world’s biggest football rivals. David Villa came with the double, while Cristiano Ronaldo was struggling for his first goal against the Catalans. The Portuguese forward has never scored against Barca.
Xabi Hernandez opened the score in the tenth minute after Messi combined with Iniesta on the left as World Cup’s final scorer found Xabi in Casillas area to jab the ball over the keeper. The opener wouldn’t concern Jose Mourinho, the Portuguese manager looking pretty calm most of the time. Real Madrid had just few shots on goal throughout the meeting as they were dominated at all facets. Furthermore, Pedro made it 2-0 eight minutes later. It was another left action which saw striker David Villa taking Ramos’s face to pass for Pedro who scores from a yard out.
The first half wouldn’t include any other goal, but four yellow cards would have been given though within four minutes. Thus, Ronaldo pushed Catalans’ coach Pep Guardiola after the manager refused to give him the ball for an out. Keeper Valdez ran the entire field towards the Portuguese in order to calm down the spirits that had been triggered following the incident. He would also receive a yellow. David Villa was the next one to be shown a yellow after an ugly challenge on Khedira. Finally, Real defender Pepe has been booked, as well. He stopped Messi from a very dangerous action which had all the ingredients for a 3-0 result.
But still the third came. David Villa remembered his duty to score his double in three minutes. Messi directed everything behind the striker to serve Barca’s new transfer twice with two incredible passes that found Villa lone with Casillas. It was the 58th minute when the forward completed his double. Six cards would follow to be given until the last minute which brought the last goal, too. Not only did he come from Barcelona’s bench, but Jeffren was taken from its school bench. Pedro’s replacer scored his first goal for the Catalans seconds before the final whistle and three minutes after the substitution has been made.
It finished 5-0, but the Special One wouldn’t feel humiliated. “It is hard to swallow because we never had a chance of winning. It wasn’t one of those defeats that leave a bad taste in your mouth because we didn’t deserve to lose or because the referee performed badly or because the ball hit the post. One team played as well as it could and the other played badly. It is a deserving win and a deserving defeat, which makes it easy to swallow,” said Jose Mourinho after the game.
But this wasn’t the kind of first-defeat the Portuguese manager would like to experience. Real Madrid conceded their first loss since Mourinho arrived in Spain, but they dropped second in the table after a long period of hegemony. Thus, the Catalans go top with 34 points, while Real is two points behind Pep Guardiola’s squad. But the only thing that matters for the Portuguese manager is the position Real Madrid will sit at the end of the season. He would even claim that the only difference between Real Madrid and FC Barcelona is the even championship.
Indeed, both sides went very well so far in the Spanish league and despite Barca lost one game on the way, Monday’s result helped them to reach the top spot. Cristiano Ronaldo and Leo Messi are league’s top scorers with 14, respectively 13 goals in 13 games. The Catalans scored 38 goals and conceded the least, eight, while Real goes 33-11. Monday’s game from Camp Nou was also the 161st meeting between the two sides. Real Madrid leads the head-to-head confrontation with 68 wins, while Barcelona just won their 63rd.
Mourinho went further to claim that Monday’s result is a great reward for the side which played better and a punishment for the one that played poorly. He revealed in the same time what he told his players after the shameful defeat, namely that they shouldn’t cry because of the five goals the more the championship hasn’t ended yet. Mourinho advised them not to go down, but keep fighting for every single match. At one point he would like they played the next game against Valencia on Tuesday.
Director Jorge Valdano declared shortly after the game that the loss will help Real Madrid mature. He blamed Mourinho’s inability to make the proper corrections in order to make the team show better. Finally, Valdano pointed that club’s officials wasn’t expecting such a large margin of defeat, adding that the poor result disappointed them.
Next Barcelona will face Osasuna away Saturday, while Real hosts fifth-placed Valencia in the same day.
