La Liga: Resurgent Barcelona demolish Real Madrid 4-0 in El Clasico

A resurgent Barcelona on Sunday absolutely demolished La Liga leaders Real Madrid 4-0 at the latter’s home ground, Santiago Bernabeu, as Xavi secured his first win against his team’s arch rivals.

Although Real Madrid went into the game having won all of their last five fixtures against Barcelona in all competitions, it was the Catalans that dominated the game, in terms of possession, chance creation, and goals.

While Real Madrid had some early chances, the hosts could not make the most of it, and Barcelona eventually grew into the game and dominated possession to fashion chances.

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Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang had a great chance in the 12th minute to give Barcelona the lead, but squandered the opportunity and shot directly into Thibaut Courtois’ hands.

However, Aubameyang’s missed chance marked the beginning of a period of Barcelona pressure and the Blaugrana fashioned chance after chance in the next 10 minutes.

Barcelona’s relentless pressure on the Real Madrid paid off sooner rather than later, however, as Aubameyang latched on to a cross by Ousmane Dembele to put the ball past Courtois and hand Barcelona the lead in the 29th minute.

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The visitors doubled their advantage less than 10 minutes later, when Ronald Araujo headed the ball into the Madrid net from a Dembele corner.

The half ended 2-0 in Barcelona’s favour.

Barcelona started the second half the dominant side too and added to their advantage two minutes into the second half when Ferran Torrres was set up by a flick from Aubameyang, and converted expertly.

Torres returned the favour to Aubameyang minutes later after VAR deemed the striker on side for a goal that took the visitors 4-0 up against their arch rivals.

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Barcelona continued to press for more goals and brought on substitutes for the same, but the match ended 4-0 to the Blaugrana, despite Madrid’s attempts to find consolation goals.

The win took Barcelona to third spot in the league, above Atletico Madrid, over whom the Blaugrana also have a game in hand.

Real Madrid, meanwhile, remain on top of the table with 66 points from 29 games.