5 players who single-handedly defeated Real Madrid
You come up against Los Blancos, you need to bring your A-game. More often than not, even that isn't enough to get a result against them. There are some occasions when a player decides to do it all himself and even the might of Real Madrid may not be enough to stop him on such a day.
What's a certainty is that when a player is responsible for his team inflicting a heavy loss on Real Madrid, he is going into the history books. It's poetic when a star-studded team is brought down because of the performance of a single player, regardless of who's playing. Having said that, let's look at some of the all-time great performances against the 13-time Champions League winners.
5. Luis Suarez
No matter what kind of form these two side are in prior to El Clasico, you can rest assured that they will be pumped up for this fixture. It can be used as a springboard to turn your season around or just continue your superiority for the season. The game in October 2018 followed a similar story.
Valverde's Barcelona were top of the league as they hosted Julen Lopetegui's Madrid, who were 9th in the league and in poor form. Their Achilles' heel, Lionel Messi, was injured for the game. It was the perfect opportunity to bring about a change in fortunes and kick on from there.
It was a Barça squad with very little depth. Chumi and Munir even made the bench, which goes to show that the situation was quite bad with no Messi around for a bailout. The stage was set.
Up stepped Luis Suarez. He scored a spectacular hat-trick to lead his club to a 5-1 victory. He won a penalty before scoring it himself. Just when Madrid were threatening to come back at 2-1 as they are known to do, he scored two more goals to put the match to bed. The penalty, the header and a lovely dink over Courtois was a wonderful combination of finishes as Barça did not feel the absence of Messi.
This performance had consequences for Lopetegui as it turned out to be his final game in charge of Madrid. A brief statement was issued and he lost his second job in quick succession after being fired as Spain head coach two days before the World Cup began. El Pistolero played his part quite well.