Barcelona retained their league title in dream circumstances on Sunday night, comprehensively defeating fierce rivals Real Madrid in El Clasico on home soil.
La Liga’s runaway leaders only needed a point from the showdown at Spotify Camp Nou and would have expected a stern contest against their old foes, but in truth this was a routine victory over a Madrid side in disarray after a week of chaos behind the scenes.
The Blaugrana got the hard work done in the first half, racing into a two-goal lead inside 20 minutes.
First, Marcus Rashford stepped up to crash a sublime free-kick across Thibault Courtois and into the top corner, before Ferran Torres latched onto Dani Olmo’s glorious flick and finished coolly inside the box. Rashford then came within Courtois’ fingertips of adding a third before half-time.
Madrid – a club in crisis after a dressing room bust-up between team-mates Aurelien Tchouameni and Fede Valverde and another trophy-less season – never looked like mounting a fightback, although Jude Bellingham did have a goal ruled out for a clear offside after the break.
Otherwise Barca were the only team who looked likely to score again, with Courtois making good stops from Ferran and his replacement Robert Lewandowski in the second period.
The comfortable 2-0 win in El Clasico means Barcelona have opened up an unassailable 14-point lead over their rivals to get their hands on the trophy once again.
