Football: Suárez scores hat-trick as Barça thrashes Real Madrid 5-1

Tuesday, October 30, 2018 

On Sunday, FC Barcelona defeated Spanish capital football club Real Madrid 5–1 in week 10 of LaLiga at the Camp Nou stadium. One goal each from Philippe Coutinho and Arturo Vidal and a hat-trick by Luis Suárez guided Barcelona to victory, as the Catalan club reached 21 points, at the top of league table standings.

Sergio Busquets wore the captain armband for Barcelona while Sergio Ramos captained the visiting Madrid team. Barcelona's talisman Lionel Messi was not in the team due to a fractured arm. Barcelona opened the scoring early, in the 11th minute. Brazilian forward Coutinho scored the first goal in the 11th minute, assisted by Jordi Alba. A few minutes later, Luka Modrić assisted Gareth Bale who tried to equalise for Real Madrid, but was stopped by Barcelona's goalkeeper Marc-André ter Stegen.

In the 26th minute, Toni Kroos tried a through ball but Marcelo Vieira was caught offside. Two minutes later, French defender Raphaël Varane committed a foul and brought down Barcelona's striker Luis Suárez in the penalty area. After consulting the video assistant referee, match official José María Sánchez awarded Barcelona a penalty kick. Real Madrid's goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois guessed the direction of Suárez's kic correctly, but could not stop the spot kick as Barcelona was 2–0 at the half-hour mark. In the 38th minute, Barcelona's midfielder Ivan Rakitić was shown yellow card, and in the next minute, Real Madrid's Nacho was booked as well. The first half ended with the Catalan side leading 2–0.

In the beginning of the second half, Lucas Vázquez replaced Varane. In the 50th minute, Marcelo scored the goal for Madrid. In the 53rd minute Bale was booked for a bad foul. Karim Benzema's 53rd minute attempt to equalise for Madrid was blocked. In the 69th minute, Barcelona made a substitution, as Rafinha was substituted off for Nélson Semedo, and five minutes later, Ousmane Dembélé replaced Coutinho.

In the 75th minute, Sergi Roberto assisted Suárez and the Uruguayan scored a header as Barcelona led 3–1. Suárez received a yellow card in the 77th minute. Roberto assisted Suárez again, in the 83rd minute. Suárez chipped over Courtois, scoring the fourth Barcelona goal of the game. Arthur was swapped with Arturo Vidal a minute later. Vidal headed Dembélé's cross in the 87th as Barcelona finished the match 5–1, collecting three points from the game.

Madrid is currently ninth in the LaLiga standings with fourteen points. This was Madrid's fourth defeat in the ten league games played so far this season.

After the match, Real Madrid's captain Ramos said, "It's a difficult moment, we have to stick together and move on as soon as possible. We’ll try to keep a cool head and reflect. The key to success is in togetherness and we now have to put together a good run of results. Barcelona have taken advantage of this moment to press home the difference, but we have to move on and try to react because there is still a long way to go in the season" ^{((es))Spanish language: ‍Es un momento difícil, tenemos que estar juntos y pasar página cuanto antes. Vamos a intentar mantener la cabeza fría y reflexionar. La clave del éxito está en la unión y ahora tenemos que juntar una buena racha de partidos. El Barcelona ha aprovechado este momento para reivindicar la diferencia y ahora se nos van de distancia, pero hay que pasar página para intentar reaccionar porque aún queda mucha temporada}.

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October 28, 2018 4:15 PM (UTC+0100)
	FC Barcelona	5–1 (FT)	Real Madrid	Camp Nou, Barcelona, Spain Attendance: 93,265 Referee: José María Sánchez Martínez
	Philippe Coutinho 11' Luis Suárez 30' (pen.) Luis Suárez 75' Luis Suárez 83' Arturo Vidal 87' Ivan Rakitić 38' Luis Suárez 77' Rafinha 69' Nélson Semedo 69' Philippe Coutinho 74' Ousmane Dembélé 74' Arthur Melo 84' Arturo Vidal 84'	2–0 (HT)	Marcelo Vieira 50' Nacho 39' Gareth Bale 53' Raphaël Varane 45' Lucas Vázquez 45' Gareth Bale 77' Marco Asensio 77' Marcelo Vieira 82' Mariano Díaz 82'

Sources

• "Live Scores - Primera División - Standings" — FIFA, October 29, 2018 (date of access)
• "Competición LaLiga Santander | Liga de Fútbol Profesional" — LaLiga, October 29, 2018 (date of access)
• "Live Scores - Primera División: Futbol Club Barcelona - Real Madrid CF" — FIFA, October 29, 2018 (date of access)
• "FC Barcelona-Reial Madrid CF" — FC Barcelona, October 28, 2018
• Alberto Navarro. "Ramos: "Tenemos que pasar página cuanto antes y reaccionar porque queda mucha temporada"" — Real Madrid, October 28, 2018 (Spanish)
• Alberto Navarro. ""Madrid have always shown that we never give up on anything", added the Whites' captain." — Real Madrid, October 28, 2018
• "El Clásico Highlights: Barça 5, Real Madrid 1" — FC Barcelona, October 28, 2018
• Mike Roberts. "FC Barcelona 5-1 Real Madrid: Classic beauty" — FC Barcelona, October 28, 2018
• Patrick Jennings. "Barcelona 5-1 Real Madrid: Luis Suarez scores a hat-trick in Nou Camp thrashing" — BBC Sport, October 28, 2018
• Andy West. "El Clasico: Lionel Messi & Cristiano Ronaldo absent - who can light up El Clasico?" — BBC Sport, October 25, 2018