1. Barca extinguish Madrid's title chances


Goals from Luis Suarez, Lionel Messi and Aleix Vidal brought Barcelona a 3-0 Clasico win over Real Madrid, more or less killing off La Liga's title race with less than half the season played and opening up huge questions about Zinedine Zidane's long term future as Madrid coach.
A lunchtime kickoff meant a muted atmosphere, and this Clasico took a long time to get going. Madrid had the better of the first half, but could not make their domination pay.
Barca, by contrast, showed ruthless efficiency when they got on top, with Suarez finishing emphatically when the home defence was opened up remarkably easily, and Messi then thumping in the penalty after Dani Carvajal was red carded for handling Paulinho's header on the line.
Vidal's goal in added time led to a mass exodus from a shocked Bernabeu, for a conclusion which seemed unlikely during the opening stages. Zidane's surprise choice of Mateo Kovacic over Isco in midfield worked very well to begin with, with the extra midfielder helping his team to dominate both possession and territory.
The home side made chances too, as Cristiano Ronaldo had a goal correctly disallowed for offside on two minutes, before the Portugal captain was guilty of an embarrassing air-kick when teed up 15 yards out after Marcelo and Toni Kroos opened up the right of Barca's defence.... <<< read more >>> @ www.galatixnews.com