Madris, Nov 22 (IANS) FC Barcelona’s crushing 4-0 win in a Clasico football match over arch rivals Real Madrid here in the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium has sent shockwaves through the Spanish press, which reflected both the champions’ brilliance and the home team’s deep problems.
The 4-0 scoreline, which came thanks to two goals from Luis Suarez, plus goals from Neymar and Andres Iniesta on Saturday, hardly reflected Barcelona’s display in which they totally dominated from start to finish, reports Xinhua.
That allowed the pro-Barcelona dailies Diario Sport and El Mundo Deportivo to celebrate their side. Diario wrote “Barcelona destroy Real Madrid”, while El Mundo Deportivo said the game was “A Symphony from Barcelona and a chorus of boos for Real Madrid.”
The Real Madrid papers focused on the damage the result had done to the club president, Florentino Perez: “A hammering for Florentino,” headlined AS, whose editor Alfredo Relano highlighted “the Bernabeu turns against the Directors’ box.”
“The fans know that you can fool a lot of people a lot of the time and some people all of the time, but you can’t fool everyone all of the time,” wrote Relano, whose paper also focuses on the problems faced by coach Rafael Benitez with a project “which was born dead”.
Daily Marca highlighted the calls for Perez to resign, saying: “The Bernabeu wants heads to roll”, and even ran a poll asking its online readers “Who is to blame?”
While Perez is under clear pressure, the paper has declared “Benitez has been sentenced”. The coach who was only appointed in June is on borrowed tim, it added.
“All that needs to be done is for the date to be named, but the decision has already been taken,” said the paper.
It raised another question: “If Florentino Perez decided to sack the popular Carlo Ancelotti and then offer the job as Real Madrid coach to Benitez, shouldn’t he carry the blame?”