MADRID – Just when you thought Real Madrid were soon going to wrap-up the Spanish league title race, Barcelona says "pump your breaks," handing Los Blancos an absolute humiliation at home.
On Sunday night, Real Madrid entered El Clasico with a 15-point lead over Barcelona on the league table, sitting comfortably in the driver's seat as the season slowly comes to an end.
Just last week, Madrid had that incredible comeback win against Paris in the European Cup tournament, followed by a win against Mallorca just days after. This stretch had many soccer fans and pundits alike thinking that Madrid would keep that momentum heading into tonight against their biggest rivals in soccer.
However, that same rival has been quietly catching stride in recent weeks as well. Barcelona entered the night on a 5-game winning streak, arriving on a good moment in time when their coach, Xavi Hernandez, has the team playing neat and incredible football, the traditional tiki-taka style of soccer that the Catalans are known for.
Since the departure of Leo Messi to Paris over the summer, the Catalan club got off to a slow start in La Liga, dropping many winnable points in the first half of the season. But the arrival of Xavi has been a slow, steady, but brilliant revival for the club.
And on Sunday night, it was no exception. The momentum from Xavi's Barcelona did not stop in this clash of Spanish giants.
From the start of this Clasico, you got the sense that Barcelona did not fear the fact that the current leaders of La Liga were hosting them. Barcelona were causing turnovers for Madrid from the get-go.
After the first 10-15 minutes, every possession by Barcelona was neat, well-organized, and potentially dangerous for the home team. They kept knocking on the door of a very well-established and experienced defense that consisted of Dani Carvajal, David Alaba, Eder Militao, and Nacho.
But it didn't matter.
In the 29th minute of the first half, Barcelona's Aubameyang scored the first goal of the night, resulting in a Santiago Bernabeu that was so quiet that you could hear Barcelona players and coaching staff celebrating with joy from 135 feet high of the historic stadium.
Less than 10 minutes pass by, and boom, another one.
You could see around the stadium that Real Madrid fans were expecting complete domination for the remainder of the match in the Spanish capital.
And it was.
Barcelona went on to score two more in the second half, resulting in a 4-0 victory for the Catalans. And one could argue, this could have ended even uglier. Barcelona missed 2 or 3 incredibly open goal opportunities in which they did not capitalize during the match. But still, the domination occurred before our eyes on a cold Sunday night in Madrid.
Real Madrid head coach Carlos Ancelotti takes full blame for this embarrassing loss, but he still remains optimistic for the rest of the season. The Italian coach says the team will remain head high as they still have nearly 10 points over the second-placed team in the Spanish league table.
"I have failed in preparing the team for this game, it's a loss that drains us because we know how important it is to play against Barcelona," Carlos Ancelotti said. "As much as this loss hurts, we have to remember we still have 9 points over the second place team in the league," he added.
And as for the winning team of the night, Xavi Hernandez
"I am very happy, very proud." Hernandez said. "Tonight was a night that Barcelona fans can soak in and enjoy because we didn't have many things to celebrate in recent memory, especially in the most recent Clasico matches," he added.
This is the road, this is the project, and this is how we should compete going forward," Xavi said on Barcelona's future ahead. "Defeating a Madrid that was on a good winning streak entering the night, we showed that we could compete against anyone today." Xavi added.
"What kind of club are you? The club who's fans leave early!!!"
Those were the words shouted by Barcelona fans from the top of the visiting section, as Real Madrid fans were seen walking away from their seats at around the 65th minute and forward.
And they can keep on walking, because their biggest rivals have found revival in this season, and are now very well still in the race for the Spanish league title.
