La Liga: Barcelona outclass Real Madrid; Neymar outshines Gareth Bale

Neymar of FC Barcelona celebrates after scoring the opening goal during the La Liga match between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid CF at Camp Nou on October 26, 2013 in Barcelona, Spain.

Barcelona, inspired by a telling La Liga debut from their big money signing Neymar who scored one and set up the other, registered an easy 2-1 victory against arch-rivals Real Madrid, who looked directionless in contrast to the team that made Barcelona’s life difficult in the past three years, at the Camp Nou.

Lionel Messi, Neymar, Gerard Pique and Cesc Fabregas all started for Barcelona while Gareth Bale replaced the under-fire Karim Benzema for Real Madrid.

Neymar, buzzing with confidence right from the kick-off, opened the scoring in the 19th minute. Picking up the ball from Andres Iniesta, the Brazilian’s attempt took a wicked deflection off Real defender Daniel Carvajal to leave Diego Lopez flat footed. Just minutes later, Lionel Messi, played through on goal by Iniesta, missed a great opportunity to double the lead.

The Blaugrana clearly bossed the first half as the away team struggled to find their feet and to create anything of significance. The only way they could have got on level is by individual brilliance which seemed to elude them as Victor Valdes made a couple of magnificent saves to deny Cristiano Ronaldo on either side of the break.

In the second half, with the introduction of Asier Illarramendi for Sergio Ramos and Karim Benzema for Gareth Bale, Real Madrid grew better as the game progressed. It looked the an equaliser was imminent and the home team would do better to add more to their tally.

Just the perfect moment for Alexis Sanchez to do what he did, a breathtaking goal to seal the fate of the match in the 78th minute. Played through by Neymar, Sanchez chipped the ball over Diego Lopez, who was only six yards off his line to complete what would be one of the best El Clasico goals ever.

The home team looked fairly comfortable and the extra-time goal from Jese Rodriguez proved to be too little and too late to pose any threat to the result of the game.