Real Madrid 0-3 Barcelona: Catalans Outclass 10-Man Madrid in El Clasico
Barcelona beat arch rivals Real Madrid in emphatic fashion thanks to second-half goals from Luis Suarez, Lionel Messi and Aleix Vidal. Real Madrid were reduced to 10 men in the 62nd minute when Dani Carvajal was sent off for preventing a certain Barcelona goal with a goalline handball.
Real Madrid looked to be ahead within the opening two minutes when Ronaldo's header bounced off the underside of the crossbar and over the line, but the goal was correctly ruled out for offside.
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Nine minutes later the Portuguese forward squandered a golden opportunity to put Real Madrid 1-0 up, Toni Kroos cutting the ball back to Ronaldo who produced an air-kick, missing the ball completely to the relief of the way away fans.
Barcelona's first real chance came in the 30th minute when Lionel Messi picked out Paulinho, the Brazilian unleashed a fierce strike towards the Real Madrid goal but Keylor Navas tipped the ball over the crossbar to keep the scoreline level.
The final effort of the first half was the closest to breaking the deadlock. Marcelo whipped in a cross that was met by the head of Karim Benzema, the former Lyon striker's effort glanced off the far post as Ter Stegen watched on helplessly.
Seven minutes after the interval Barcelona were in front. Ivan Rakitic found Sergi Roberto in the Real Madrid box and the Spaniard played a first time cross into the path of Suarez, who slotted the ball past Navas to put the Catalans ahead.
The key moment of the match came in the 62nd minute. Messi found Suarez and the Uruguayan fired an effort off the post, the ball then rebounded back into the path of Paulinho, whose goal bound header was saved by Real Madrid right-back Dani Carvajal.
The referee spotted the incident and sent the Spanish full-back off as well as awarding a penalty to Barcelona. Messi stepped up to take the resulting spot kick and beat Navas with ease from 12 yards to spark wild celebrations among the away fans.
Real Madrid did put Barcelona under late pressure as Gareth Bale saw a couple of efforts saved by Ter Stegen. The German goalkeeper made a total of four saves in the final 10 minutes to keep Los Blancos at bay.
Barcelona put the cherry on top of their comfortable win over Madrid when Aleix Vidal added a third Barcelona goal in secend-half stoppage time. Barcelona are now 14 points ahead of Zinedine Zidane's side and look to have sealed the Primera Division title before the Spanish winter break.
