Despite the absence of Lionel Messi, Barcelona still asserted their dominance over an out of form Real Madrid in this weekend’s El Clasico, winning by a margin of four goals. That’s right, four whole goals.
This El Clasico was heavily anticipated and for all the right reasons. Whenever Barcelona and Real Madrid meet, it’s always a fiery affair. For the first time in many years, both Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi would not feature, but judging by the quality of the match, they weren’t missed, as the fixture finished 5-1 to Barcelona.
FC Barcelona started off as the dominant side, with Philippe Coutinho scoring the first goal of the match in only the 11th minute. It was a sumptuous passing movement, finished by the Brazilian from close-range. He was one to watch going into this match, as we listed the players who should be stepping up to mask Lionel Messi’s injury.
It didn’t take long before Luis Suarez doubled the lead from the spot. He went the same way as Thibaut Courtois in-goal, but his penalty was too far towards the corner for the Belgian to save.
Real Madrid looked to be creeping back into the match, and their confidence was personified when Marcelo got the goal early in the second half. However, they were caught out against the run of pay late on.
Obviously, it was the main man again, Luis Suarez, to secure all three points for Barcelona. Sergi Roberto played an impressive pass, intentionally aimed at Suarez, who scooped his header over the tall and stretched Courtois.
Was he done there? Obviously, he wasn’t. On the hat-trick, he showed plenty of confidence to chip Madrid’s new goalkeeper, giving the fans plenty of excuses to make a meme out of the Belgian on social media. It was very much the Luis Suarez show!
A Luis Suarez hat-trick was topped with some fine work from the substitute Ousmane Dembele, who teed up Arturo Vidal to make it 5. Five. Times are worrying for Julen Lopetegui, but Barcelona has every reason to be positive from such a dominant performance. El Clasico didn’t let us down this time!
As is usually the case when it comes to watching El Clasico, Twitter was the place to be during all the action. The two sets of fans can be criticised for being ‘keyboard warriors’, but that’s only because the two clubs have worldwide fanbases, all connected via social media. Let’s take a lot at the highlights from this match…
No messi? No problem. Barca is still on fire. Can't say same about real madrid without ronaldo tho.#ElClasico
— Chisom (@ukwuchisom) October 28, 2018
FC Barcelona was not put off by the absence of their Argentine.
Barca lead 2-0 in El Clasico. 2nd goal VAR penalty. Sooner it comes to the Premier League the better.
— Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) October 28, 2018
VAR made its first ever La Liga appearance, so obviously it was a hot topic of discussion.
Luis Suarez leads that class of forwards that literally never stop working on both sides of the ball and are TERRIFYING when they have it at their feet.
— Aaron West (@oeste) October 28, 2018
Luis Suarez reminded us he is still a God-tier striker.
What did you make of this weekend’s El Clasico?