Three days after wrapping up the title Real Madrid showed Barcelona why they are the new Spanish champions, crushing their arch rivals 4-1 in El Clasico at the Santiago Bernabeu on Wednesday.
An 18th goal of the season for Real captain Raul, another Arjen Robben header and strikes from substitutes Gonzalo Higuain and Ruud van Nistelrooy ensured a historic league double for Real, who won 1-0 at the Camp Nou back in December, as they humiliated Barca to cap a fine season.
The loss means Barca must now qualify for the Champions League after losing second place to Villarreal, who won 2-0 against Recreativo Huelva and are now seven points clear with two games remaining.
PHOTO: AFP
Barcelona players greeted newly-crowned champions Real Madrid with a guard of honor as they ran onto the pitch.
After a 6-0 drubbing of Valencia, Barca should have been full of confidence, but that seeped away when Real got off to the dream start after just 12 minutes with Raul curling a brilliant left-footed finish past Victor Valdes.
Barca were taunted by “oles” and a chorus of “champions,” and it got worse when Robben bagged a second.
Robben said he had never scored a header after his vital goal in Sunday’s 2-1 win over Osasuna, but he repeated the trick, taking advantage of some non-existent marking.
Real were far superior and Higuain, the hero against Osasuna, scored a third just after the hour mark before van Nistelrooy converted a penalty.
Thierry Henry struck a late consolation for the visitors after a great pass from Barca’s shining light Lionel Messi, before Barca lost Xavi for dissent seconds before the end.
Earlier, Argentine midfielder Fazio was Sevilla’s hero, scoring twice as the club boosted their chances of a second successive season in the Champions League with a 3-0 win at rivals Racing Santander.
Fazio scored in both halves as Sevilla leapfrogged Racing into fifth and they are now level on points with fourth-placed Atletico.
Racing are two points behind Sevilla as they rued a first half penalty miss from Aldo Duscher with the score at 0-0. Atletico remain in pole position to take fourth.
Elsewhere, Kings Cup winners Valencia are virtually safe after a 1-0 home win over fellow strugglers Real Zaragoza.
A goal from Daniel Silva, who was also sent off, guided Valencia to five points from the drop. Zaragoza stay one point above relegation.
Osasuna lost 2-1 at Real Mallorca and stay third from bottom, while Recreativo Huelva stay level on 40 points after the 0-2 loss to Villarreal.
Getafe came from two goals down to win 4-2 over Almeria and are now five points clear of the drop.
Also See: BUNDES LIGA: Champions Bayern power on
Also See: Juninho goal takes Lyon to Cup final
Also See: Rangers beat Motherwell to close in on rivals Celtic
Also See: Gamba Osaka, Saipa through after wins
Also See: Second-string Inter beat Lazio to make through to Cup final
Former European champions Celtic exited the UEFA Champions League in the qualifiers after a 3-2 penalty shoot-out defeat at Kazakhstan’s Kairat Almaty on Tuesday, following two goalless legs in the playoff tie. Kairat are to compete in the competition proper for the first time, while Norway’s Bodo/Glimt and Cyprus’s Pafos also secured debut appearances after coming through the playoffs. Celtic’s night ended in disappointment as they missed three penalties in the shoot-out, Daizen Maeda failing with the decisive spot-kick. The slugfest of a match went into extra-time with neither side finding the net and few overall chances, echoing the first
Rangers on Wednesday bowed out of the UEFA Champions League playoffs with a humiliating 6-0 defeat at the hands of Club Brugge which piles further pressure on head coach Russell Martin, while SL Benfica secured a place in the competition proper at the expense of Jose Mourinho’s Fenerbahce. The Glasgow giants traveled to Belgium right up against it after losing 3-1 at home in last week’s first leg, when they conceded three times in the opening 20 minutes. They never looked like turning the tie around as Club Brugge took the lead inside five minutes at the Jan Breydelstadion through Nicolo Tresoldi
Australian Alex de Minaur reached the second week of the US Open for the third year in a row with little fanfare on Saturday and said he intended to keep winning until the tournament organizers were forced to give him better billing. Despite being the eighth seed and a quarter-finalist last year at Flushing Meadows, De Minaur’s third-round match against German Daniel Altmaier was scheduled for Court 17 — the smallest of the four stadium venues in the precinct. “It is a little bit of a headscratcher for me. I’m not gonna lie,” he told reporters after progressing 6-7 (9/7), 6-3, 6-4,
Noah Lyles on Thursday warmed up for the upcoming athletics world championships by chasing down Olympic champion Letsile Tebogo to win the 200m at the Diamond League final. Lyles trailed Tebogo at the start, but gradually erased the deficit over the final 100m and pipped the Botswana sprinter to the line by centimeters. Lyles, the Olympic 100m champion and reigning world champion in both the 100m and 200m, clocked 19.74 seconds in a slight headwind. Tebogo was 0.02 seconds behind. It was Lyles’ sixth Diamond League title, a record for track athletes. “Six, that’s a big number,” Lyles said. “Shoot, that’s another record on
RSS