Barcelona rout Real Madrid to go 14 points clear of clásico rivals in La Liga

At the beginning of the final clásico of 2017, a huge banner was unfurled by Real Madrid supporters at the south end of the Santiago Bernabéu welcoming in a “White Christmas”. At its end, it was the small handful of Barcelona fans high in the opposite stand who celebrated. Way below them, their players applauded: theirs will be happy holidays. Luis Suárez, Lionel Messi and Aleix Vidal scored to give them a 3-0 victory that carried them nine points clear at the top of the table, 14 ahead of their biggest rivals. In August Gerard Piqué had admitted he felt “inferior” to Madrid; how quickly things change. By the close here, Barcelona’s superiority was startling, imposed bit by bit here.

Unusually for the clásico, this was the early kick-off as Spain sought a far eastern audience and, for a moment, the Bernabéu thought there had been an early goal too. It was still only one minute past one when Cristiano Ronaldo’s header went in off the bar but, as it bounced down, he saw the linesman’s flag raised. When the ball was pulled back to him near the penalty spot soon after, he missed it, swinging but failing to make proper contact with Toni Kroos’s cut-back. Barcelona had been warned; 10 minutes in, they had barely had the ball.

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