Real Madrid boss Jose Mourinho says Monday’s 5-0 thrashing from FC Barcelona won’t decide the Spanish La Liga title this term, but there’s no doubt it’s done some damage to Los Merengues’ title hopes.
Josep Guardiola’s Barcelona were at their exquisite finest at Camp Nou, scoring twice inside the opening 20 minutes courtesy of Xavi and Pedro.
Real tried to rally but their best efforts failed and Barca put the result to bed courtesy of two David Villa goals early in the second-half on 55 and 58 minutes.
Jeffren Suarez put the icing on the cake in injury-time, while Sergio Ramos expressed his frustration at the hammering by earning a late red card after lashing out at Spain international teammate Carles Puyol.
It was a resounding defeat with Barcelona’s midfield pair Xavi and Andres Iniesta pulling the strings and dominating the match, while Lionel Messi showed brilliance in attack, clearly proving his quality above rival Cristiano Ronaldo.
For many onlookers, the performance and the result answered a lot of questions as to where these two are at.
Despite the humbling (the worst of Mourinho’s professional career) which sees Barcelona leapfrog their rivals, Mourinho insisted it was no humiliation.
“One team played very good, one team very bad,” Mourinho said.
“One deserved to win and deserved to lose. Humiliated? No. It’s easy to deal with this loss, we just weren’t good enough.”
There’s no doubt about that fact. In fact, Barcelona’s midfield proved far superior to Real with Xabi Alonso and Sami Khedira completely outplayed by Xavi, Iniesta and Sergi Busquets.
And that’s the major worry for Real, that they were utterly dominated by Barca.
Mourinho added: “We gifted them two goals that were almost ridiculous. I was watching the game. I tried to change things at the interval and we came out quite well, but then they scored again and there was nothing I could do - the game was lost.
“Last week we had a point more than Barcelona and today we have a point less. And as I have always said, Barca is the finished article while Madrid is still a long way off that.”
Guardiola agreed with Mourinho saying the result wasn’t indicative of where these two sides are currently at.
“‘This match isn’t representative of the difference between the two teams,” Guardiola said.
“They are a very good team, they came here unbeaten and as league leaders. Today all of our players played well and that was the difference.
“Now it’s very easy to see are better than them, but only time will tell. In a few years time, we will see. They are on a spectacular level, but we were better today.
“In these two years we have been superior to Madrid - that’s true. With time, we can enjoy these things more and we will enjoy this for a few days now as well.”
Double goalscorer David Villa also made the point after the game it’s only November. It’s a good point to remember, as there is a lot of football to be played and we shouldn’t get carried away with this result.
But 5-0 is an emphatic scoreline and the performance was emphatic too.
Mourinho, though, is a shrewd boss and he will make sure Real will be better prepared next time these two meet. And he won’t let up in the meantime as he tries to improve this Madrid side.
The title race is far from over, but Barcelona showed on Monday they’ve got pole position and they’ll take some beating.
As Guardiola eluded to, whoever eventuates the champions this term in Spain will be quite the side to be reckoned with.