Newly crowned La Liga champions Real Madrid piled the misery on arch rivals Barcelona with an embarrassingly comfortable 4-1 victory at the Bernabeu. Barca were forced to form a guard of honour for Bernd Schuster’s men prior to kick-off, and they were a goal down inside a quarter of an hour thanks to a typically clinical finish from Raul.

Arjen Robben made it two shortly afterwards when he headed home from Guti’s free-kick, before substitutes Gonzalo Higuain and Ruud van Nistelrooy completed the visitors’ misery in the second half.

Read the rest of this entry »

Real Madrid went six points clear at the top of La Liga with a convincing 3-1 defeat of Sevilla. Goals from Gabriel Heinze, Raul and Gonzalo Higuain signalled a return to form for Bernd Schuster’s side, who dispatched the visitors with an assured performance.

Madrid went ahead after eight minutes, when Heinze ghosted in to head home Wesley Sneijder’s free-kick. It was the Argentine’s first goal since his arrival from Manchester United, and the ideal tonic for a side suffering a crisis of confidence.

Read the rest of this entry »

Barcelona president Joan Laporta has moved to quash speculation about a rift between the club and an out-of-form Ronaldinho. “There is no divorce between Barcelona and Ronaldinho,” Laporta said.

“We hope Ronaldinho will be back as soon as possible, but at the moment he is suffering some pain and we have to respect that. While he has got this pain we can’t count on him.”

A succession of injury and fitness problems and media speculation about night-time partying have led to reports that Barcelona are prepared to offload the former World Player of the Year at the end of the season.

But Laporta insisted that the 28-year-old Brazilian was still part of coach Frank Rijkaard’s plans.

Read the rest of this entry »

Real Madrid’s lead at the top of La Liga was cut to four points after they were beaten 3-2 at home by Valencia and second-placed Barcelona won 4-1 against Valladolid. In the game at the Bernabeu, Valencia took the lead through a composed finish from David Villa after half an hour, but Raul hit back immediately with a header and put his side in front 10 minutes into the second half.

The visitors drew level when Villa scored from the spot after David Silva had won a dubious penalty, and they completed their smash-and-grab raid in the last minute when Arizmendi skipped past Fabio Cannavaro before slotting the ball inside Iker Casillas’s near post.

Read the rest of this entry »

Valencia stunned Barcelona 3-2 at the Mestalla to reach the Copa del Rey final 4-3 on aggregate. Barca, who had scrambled an injury-time equaliser to draw 1-1 in the first leg, were hit by a Ruben Baraja piledriver and a breakaway goal from Juan Mata before halftime in an intense encounter they dominated throughout.

Substitute Thierry Henry pulled one back for Barca in the second half only for Mata to bag his second almost immediately and, although a late Samuel Eto’o goal set up a grandstand finish, it was to no avail. Read the rest of this entry »