La Liga - Real deepen Barca gloom

Eurosport - Wed, 07 May 23:06:00 2008

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.
Thierry Henry netted a late consolation, but it was not enough to soften the blow of being consigned to Champions League pre-qualifying next season by second-placed Villarreal's earlier win at Recreativo.

The visitors saw a lot of the ball in the game's opening stages, but with 12 minutes gone Real took the lead when Raul curled an inch-perfect shot around Victor Valdes from the edge of the box after Guti's trip on Rafael Marquez went unnoticed.
Less than 10 minutes later it was 2-0 as Robben followed up his header in the title-clinching 2-1 win at Osasuna at the weekend with another headed effort after Guti's right-wing free-kick caught the Barca defence napping.
Real's passing displayed a fluency that has typified some of their best performances this season, and Guti and Robben both drew saves from Valdes before the break.
Los Merengues continued to dominate in the second period, and after Sylvinho brilliantly blocked Robben's cross from the left, Xavi was forced to hack Mahamadou Diarra's prodded effort off the line.
Diarra was quickly back on the attack though, and with just under half an hour to play his pass from the right allowed Higuain - who had been on the pitch less than an minute - to calmly lift the ball over Valdes.

Carles Puyol then conceded a penalty when he used his arms to block Robinho's shot from the left-hand edge of the area, enabling Van Nistelrooy to tuck the ball past Valdes from 12 yards with his first touch after coming on for Raul.
Henry coolly tucked the ball home from Lionel Messi's through-ball to claim a late consolation, before Xavi's injury-time sending off for a second bookable offence sealed a dismal night and a wretched season for the Catalan giants.

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