Barcelona smash Real Madrid 4-0 in Clasico demolition

Real Madrid suffered a humiliating 4-0 defeat at the hands of Barcelona in La Liga on Saturday night at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium.

Although the champions dominated proceedings, it was Barca who took the lead in the 54th minute through Robert Lewandowski before the Polish striker stunned the home crowd with a second goal just three minutes later.

Teen sensation Lamine Yamal scored Barcelona’s third goal with a thunderous shot in the 77th minute, while Brazilian forward Raphinha lobbed the ball over Madrid goalkeeper Andriy Lunin to round off a five-star performance by the visitors.

Enduring their first league defeat of the season, the Blancos remain second in La Liga with 24 points from 11 games, with Barca now six points clear at the top.

The impressive performance by Hansi Flick’s men came just days after they hammered Bayern Munich 4-1 in Matchday 3 of the Champions League.

Speaking after triumphing on his El Clasico debut, the Barca manager was quite pleased by his charges.

“Everyone followed the plan we’d designed and gave 100%,” Flick said.

“We knew how to defend well and stuck to our ideas even though Madrid didn’t allow us very much space.

“In the second half, we had a lot more control of the ball, but the whole team did an extraordinary job.”

Meanwhile, Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti insisted his side had a lot to learn from the defeat.

“We have to look at what happened,” the Italian said.

“You learn a lot of things from a defeat, self-criticism is fundamental and we have to do it, but we mustn’t throw everything away.

“The team’s first half was good and I’m not wrong about that, I’ve been coaching for 48 years.”

Ancelotti also urged everyone not to give up despite the upset.

“The season is long, we can’t give up and we have to learn from this defeat,” he said.

“We learned from the last one and we can apply the same theory now.

“Now we have to overcome the deficit because the season is long with a lot of games. We can do better and I’m sure we will.”

Real Madrid will be hoping to bounce back next Saturday, with online bookmakers paying -208.33 for the champions to win on the road against third-placed Valencia (+550).

Meanwhile, Barcelona will host 15th-placed Espanyol next Sunday, with top soccer betting sites paying -625 for the league leaders to defeat the Periquitos (+1400).

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