Barcelona piled further misery on arch-rivals Real Madrid and their manager Julen Lopetegui, as Luis Suarez‘s hat-trick headlined a 5-1 victory in El Clasico at Camp Nou.
Without Lionel Messi for the second game since the Argentine’s arm injury, La Blaugrana scored twice before halftime through Philippe Coutinho and Suarez’s VAR-awarded penalty to take control of proceedings.
Real started the second half well and Marcelo scored his third goal in a week, halving the deficit and injecting hope into the visitors, but that proved a temporary reprieve.
Barcelona took full advantage on the counterattack as Real pressed desperately. Suarez headed home brilliantly and then capitalized on a late defensive error to complete his treble, before Arturo Vidal headed home to seal a rampant victory for Ernesto Valverde’s side in the first Clasico since 2007 to feature neither Messi nor Cristiano Ronaldo.
3 – Excluding Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez is the first @FCBarcelona player to score a hat-trick in #ElClasico in La Liga since Romário in 1994. Exhibition. pic.twitter.com/ZVwmhJRjAm
— OptaJose (@OptaJose) October 28, 2018
It’s more desperately bad news for Lopetegui, for …read more