Madrid: Robert Lewandowski scored twice, while Lamine Yamal and Raphinha also hit the target as FC Barcelona thrashed Real Madrid 4-0 in the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium on Saturday night.
The win lifts Barca six points clear of Real Madrid at the top of La Liga and also means Real Madrid’s run of 42 La Liga games without defeat comes to an end.
The first half saw 47 minutes of high-octane football with Kylian Mbappe having the first chance in the opening minute, although the offside flag ruled his effort out as Barca played a high defensive line.
The French striker then almost took advantage of a poor clearance from Pau Cubarsi, but his effort from distance was just over the bar with Barcelona goalkeeper Inaki Pena well off his line.
Yamal looked as if he was through at the other end, but could only shoot tamely at goalkeeper Andriy Lunin under pressure before play went straight down the other end where Pena saved brilliantly from Jude Bellingham in another chance ruled out for Mbappe’s offside.
Vinicius Jr also got into the game as Real Madrid looked to be aggressive, firing one chance over and dragging another wide before Lunin reacted to parry Pedri’s shot from outside the Madrid penalty area.
Mbappe had the ball in the net in the 31st minute, but once again he had strayed behind the defense, with Madrid chalking up eight offsides in the first 45 minutes.
The opening minutes of the second half were end-to-end football with neither side having control, before Lewandowski left Madrid reeling with two goals in three minutes.
The striker found space between Antonio Rudiger and Eder Militao to run onto a defense-splitting pass from Marc Casado and cooly beat Lunin with a low shot in the 54th minute.
He then doubled Barca’s lead with a wonderful header following Alejandro Balde’s cross, as Madrid’s central defenders were nowhere near the striker.
Luka Modric came on to try and give more control to Madrid, and Bellingham could have scored from his free kick, while Mbappe fired another good chance at Pena.
Lewandowski had two magnificent opportunities to score a hat-trick as Madrid left space in defense, but side-footed wide of an open goal in the 66th minute and then shot over the bar two minutes later.
Yamal smashed home Barca’s third after another counter-attack and Raphinha added a fourth with six minutes left with a dink over Lunin after finding wide-open spaces again. IANS
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