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Pressure builds on Zinedine Zidane as Barca extend La Liga lead to 14 points



Barcelona thrashed 10-man Real Madrid 3-0 in El Clasico at the Santiago Bernabeu on Saturday to give their title hopes a huge boost and deal a hammer blow to Los Blancos' chances of retaining La Liga.

Luis Suarez finished off a slick move to give Barca the lead early in the second half before Dani Carvajal was given his marching orders for a deliberate handball in the box barely 10 minutes later.

Messi fired home the ensuing penalty to give the visitors a two-goal cushion. Despite the introduction of attacking reinforcements for Real, the Catalan giants added another through Aleix Vidal in stoppage time to add gloss to a remarkable victory.


Ernesto Valverde's Barca now leads La Liga by nine points to second-placed Atletico Madrid and have a 14-point advantage over Zinedine Zidane's Los Blancos.

Cristiano Ronaldo had the ball in the back of the net after just two minutes, but the effort was rightly ruled out for offside after Casemiro's flick-on from Toni Kroos' corner.

Real then proceeded to dominate most of the first half, but they were largely limited to half-chances as Barcelona defended impressively.

Paulinho forced two decent saves from Keylor Navas in the opening 45 minutes as Barcelona looked to hit the hosts on the break. And Karim Benzema hit the post with a header the first time he found any space in the box three minutes from the break.

It was measured play from both sides in the first half, and the clash was locked at 0-0 when the referee blew the whistle.

After the break, Barcelona changed their approach and began to dominate possession rather than sit back and soak up the Real pressure. It soon paid dividends as Suarez opened the scoring in the 54th minute after forcing another save from Navas moments earlier. Ivan Rakitic found space on the halfway line and surged towards the goal. He then fed Sergi Roberto on the right, who squared for the onrushing Suarez to sweep into the back of the net.


Messi added the second from the penalty spot 10 minutes later following a chaotic goalmouth scramble after which Carvajal was dismissed.Suarez had forced another save from Navas and then hit the post with the follow-up only for Carvajal to deliberately push the ball to safety with his hand, leading to the penalty and red card. Messi made no mistake as he lashed home from 12 yards to leave Real reeling.

Zidane threw on Gareth Bale and Marco Asensio with 20 minutes to go, and the Welshman forced two smart saves from Marc-Andre Ter Stegen in quick succession. Barca resisted a brief rally from the hosts and headed into stoppage time on the front foot.

Substitute Vidal then dealt the final blow with almost the last kick of the game as he squeezed the ball into the back of the net after Messi's cut-back.

FINAL SCORE

Real Madrid   0
FC Barcelona 3
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