It's time to give Real Madrid's defence of their La Liga title its last rites: defeat at home to Barcelona today means they lie a massive 14 points behind their mighty rivals. Madrid were the better side in the first half but failed to create too many chances of note, bar an early Ronaldo header that was ruled out for offside.
Gareth Bale was restricted to a place on the bench as Zinedine Zidane elected to play Mateo Kovacic, who was given a man-marking on on Lionel Messi. He did a reasonably good job of doing so in the first half, but in the second, Barca brilliantly exploited Zidane's tactic. With Kovacic glued to Messi, Ivan Rakitic found joy by ignoring the great man for once. He galloped into space, and passed to Sergi Roberto, who brilliantly picked out Luis Suarez for the opener:
Ten minutes later, Barcelona wrapped it up. A glorious Messi pass found Luis Suarez in space, who saw his shot rebound off Keylor Navas. As defenders and attackers piled on in search of the rebound, Leo Messi had the presence of mind to ponce again pick out Suarez...who smashed the ball against the post.
This triggered the real scramble: Jordi Alba got a touch on the ball, only for Kerry GAA fan Dani Carvajal to flick his hand out to divert its path. The ball ended up rolling over the line - Carvajal got the final touch - but by then the referee had blown his whistle for a penalty. No trouble for Barca and Messi: Carvajal was sent off, and Messi smashed the penalty into the top corner.
Fair to say he enjoyed the celebrations.
Alex Vidal added a late third with this shot that squirmed beneath Keylor Navas, to seal a third straight Bernabeu victory for Barca, for the first time in their history.
Ter-Stegen had a couple of late saves to make from Bale and Ramos, but ultimately Barca were comfortable throughout.
Discomfiting so for Zizou.
