Barcelona hammered Real Madrid 4-0 at the Bernabeu in November with a performance which boss Luis Enrique said would go down in history. A double from Luis Suarez and further goals from Neymar and Andres Iniesta humiliated the hosts and moved Barca six points clear at the top of La Liga. They did it without Lionel Messi for much of the game too, with the Argentina ace only making his return from injury 57 minutes in.A rash challenge from Isco, which saw him sent off, capped a miserable night for the hosts and the Madrid fans jeered Real boss Rafa Benitez before the full-time whistle was even blown. But how did Barca pull off the victory? And what went so wrong for Real Madrid?Here, ahead of Saturdays El Clasico, we look back at the first meeting between the sides this season and pick out the key factors in Barcelonas remarkable win… Watch highlights of Barcelonas 4-0 win over Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu Team selectionAhead of the match there was intense speculation on whether Messi would return from a knee problem to take on Real Madrid and his great rival Cristiano Ronaldo. Ultimately, Messi started on the bench and Sergi Roberto was given a chance to impress. But it was the team selection of hosts Real Madrid which proved to be more decisive.Benitez opted to drop defensive midfielder Casemiro to make way for James Rodriguez. It left Real unbalanced and unable to boss the midfield battle. Jamie Carragher was unimpressed with the selection and suggested it was an uncharacteristic move from Benitez. Jamie Carragher picks apart what went wrong for Real Madrid in their 4-0 defeat to Barcelona Thats not a team Rafa would pick, Carragher said when analysing the game on Monday Night Football. Either the people above him have got involved or maybe hes bowed to media pressure or the players, I just dont know.You look at the team and hes not gone in with a holding midfield player - Rafa would normally play two. His best player this season has been Casemiro and hes left him out. I dont know if theres something where hes maybe getting pressure from the owner - weve bought these big stars and they need to play - and hes said ok lets play them against Barcelona, thats what happens. You see the results.Attitude from Reals players Gareth Bale tries to chase down Lionel Messi While the balance of the Real team may not have been right, what cant be denied is they fielded and XI bursting with quality. The problem was their application. There was a clear split in the Real Madrid team between attack and defence, with the hosts seemingly playing a 4-2-4 for much of the game. Luka Modric and Toni Kroos were left exposed in midfield and Barcelona were able to capitalise.They looked like the team had broken in two, Carragher said. There was a big gap between attack and defence and it was a bit like watching a Sunday league game. People just waiting up front. Were talking about world class stars. There was no intensity.Your nightmare as a player, as a midfield two, is playing against Barcelona and your front four arent willing to help you out. What can be worse than that? This type of game is not about the tactics. At one point you need to bring the desire and the right commitment on the field and the right intensity. It wasnt there at all [from Real Madrid]. Thierry Henry Thierry Henry was equally unimpressed with the attitude from Reals players and said that their failure to apply themselves appropriately left Benitez no way to influence the encounter.This type of game is not about the tactics, the former Barcelona forward told Sky Sports. At one point you need to bring the desire and the right commitment on the field and the right intensity. It wasnt there at all [from Real Madrid]. You cant play a Clasico like that.People are going to talk about Benitez and the tactics but the tactics come along when both teams desire and commitment is there and the game is tight. Then the boss will have to trigger one, two or three things to see whos going to be the best boss. But if your team goes out there without the right desire or commitment it becomes really difficult for the coach.Im not trying to find any excuses for Benitez but first and foremost you need to bring the desire on the field. You saw a team on one side and on the other side you see a group of players playing for themselves and not being a team at the moment. It was a collective thing. At the end of the day hes [Benitez] going to maybe take the blame. They ultimately failed as a team today. They didnt play well. Terry Gibson analyses Real Madrids tactical errors in El Clasico Barcelonas brillianceWhile much of the post-game reaction focused on Real Madrids shortcomings and the impact the result would have on Benitezs future, Barcelonas exceptional performance should not be overlooked.Suarez was clinical in attack, converting two of his four shots, while Neymar conjured up twice as many key passes as any other player on the pitch. Ivan Rakitic didnt misplace a single pass in Reals half, Sergio Busquets racked up more tackles than anyone else and Gerard Pique was imperious at the back. All in all, it was a superb team performance from the visitors. Luis Suarez hit a brace against Real Madrid I dont think Real Madrid gave up, I just think we were a level above them, was Barca boss Enriques clinical assessment of the contest. We outnumbered them in many areas of the game and we were very effective. The game is more of a reflection of our merits than Madrids faults.This victory tastes glorious because it is against our eternal rivals and, as well as the victory, it will be very difficult for us to better this performance. This game will go down in history; it will be remembered by all Barcelona fans. This squad won the treble last year and it is one of the best squads you could hope for. Terry Gibson reviews Barcelonas tactics in their 4-0 win over Real Madrid Barcelonas commitment For all of Barcelonas eye-catching play, Henry was also keen to highlight their remarkable work rate when they didnt have the ball.Real Madrid recorded a far worse passing accuracy to their rivals (82.6 v 90.2 per cent) and managed just 41.4 per cent of possession. The Catalans intense pressing gave Benitezs men no time on the ball. Guillem Balague and Graham Hunter review Barcelonas win over rivals Real Madrid People always talk about when Barcelona have the ball and how they pass the ball well but they put pressure on, the back line is backing up the midfielders and striker to put pressure on, said Henry.The distances are right between the players. They never give up, they help each other. You even saw Busquets in the 91st minute making a foul. It could have been 4-1 but no, 4-0. The discipline and intensity is key for that team.When you see the likes of Suarez working hard, Neymar working hard, Andres Iniesta working hard, it speaks volumes to the other guys to be better. We dont emphasise enough how Barca is good in those type of situations. Neymar got on the scoresheet at the Bernabeu Contrasting performances from star performers Barcelonas brilliance is built on more than just one man and in the previous nine games, with injured Messi absent, Enriques side had won seven. At the Bernabeu, with the Argentine benched, attacking duo Suarez and Neymar stepped up and delivered once again.The pair scored 18 goals during Messis absence and, with him watching from the dugout, added three more to their tally against Real. Suarezs opener after 11 minutes concluded a brilliant 24-pass team move.For Real, Ronaldo could easily have made his way onto the scoresheet had it not been for two brilliant stops from Claudio Bravo - but the hosts key man was unable to influence proceedings as he would have liked. Ronaldo only managed two shots at goal in the entire game and produced just one pass leading to a shooting opportunity. The defeat heaped pressure on then Real boss Rafa Benitez While he struggled, Gareth Bale, Karim Benzema and James Rodriguez failed to make their mark, too. The trio only managed to work Bravo four times between them.The performance of the latter three players raises questions about whether they were physically ready for the intensity of a Clasico, given they had all been sidelined with injury in the weeks leading up to the game. Since the start of October Real Madrid played seven games but of the 1890 minutes the trio could have racked up, they had managed just 309.Gareth Bale was the only one to have played a full 90 minutes in that time. He did it just once, in Reals 3-2 defeat to Sevilla in the previous game. In short, most of Reals key attackers were undercooked. Also See: Barca pay tribute to Cruyff Messis 117-game shooting streak ends Adidas Shoes Sale . Riethers apparent stamp on Manchester United midfielder Adnan Januzaj during Saturdays Premier League match at Craven Cottage was missed by the match officials. A three-man panel of former referees reviewed the incident and all agreed that it was a sending-off offence. Air Max 90 Sale . "I was so nervous," Hadley said Sunday after winning the Puerto Rico Open for his first PGA Tour victory. "I did not eat well last night. https://www.wholesaleshoesforcheap.com/nike-air-safari-sale/ . The Flames are in the midst of a six-game slide (0-5-1), their longest losing streak since an 0-6-3 skid from Jan. 11-28, 2010. They havent won since Nov. 3 in Chicago and most recently went winless on a three-game homestand. Air Jordan 15 Sale . Blatter, a 75-year-old Swiss executive who has been in office since 1998, was handed a final four-year term as head of footballs governing body in a vote at FIFAs congress. He won 186 votes out of 203 ballots. Air Jordan 32 Sale . The two-time former Formula One champion downplayed his third-place finish three weeks ago in China and said progress is going slow for Ferrari as it tries to make up ground on Mercedes.NEW YORK - The basketball gods have spoken, with an assist from Jason Kidd. The Toronto Raptors will open their first playoff series in six years at home to the Brooklyn Nets at 12:30 PM et Saturday afternoon. The Raptors learned their fate early in the second half of Wednesdays season final - a 95-92 loss to the Knicks - when Chicago fell to Charlotte in overtime, assuring Toronto would finish with the third seed in the Eastern Conference. Brooklyn had been red-hot, winning 33 of 46 games - the second best record in the East since Jan. 1 - until they dropped four of the last five contests, conceding a division title to the Raptors and ultimately falling to sixth place. Their last stand in Cleveland suggests that the late-season collapse, or at least the latter half of it, may not have been an accident. Kidds Nets squandered a couple of opportunities to lock up the fifth seed, setting up a likely matchup with the surging Bulls, on the final two nights of the campaign. On Wednesday evening, with four teams jockeying for playoff seeding, the Nets rookie head coach opted to sit all five of his starters, suiting up only seven players in a winnable game against the lowly Cavaliers. They would go on to lose by 29. "In my experience, youve got to be careful what you wish for," Dwane Casey cautioned ahead of Wednesdays finale. "You think you want to play a certain team then you start preparing for them and say, wow that teams pretty good. Then youve got a dogfight. I think the best way to approach it is let the basketball gods decide." Faced with a similar decision, Casey - who was an assistant in Dallas when he and Kidd won a championship together in 2011 - chose to play his stars against the Knicks and compete to win. Thats just one of the factors that separate these two teams, that creates a trace of animosity going into this weekends first-round matchup. Whether they care to admit to it or not, the Nets took their foot off the gas in the hope of maximizing the odds of facing an inexperienced Raptors team. Whether Torontos players or coaches care to admit it, thats a slap in the face, or at least it should be. Do they feel slighted? "No, man," Lowry responded, after the game. "They rested their players. Thats what they did." They shouldnt need added motivation, Casey wisely posted out. The Raptors have been underestimated and theyre about to be again. They will be lost in a sea of publicity surrounding the compelling storylines of a big market team with a payroll exceeding $100 million. "Weve played all season as the underdog, as the small guy trying to come up, whatever you want to call it," said DeMar DeRozan, who is one of three Raptors starters slated to make his postseason debut Saturday. "We always play with a chip on our shoulder and we understand going into the playoffs, we havent done nothing. We havent made it to the playoffs in six years. So weve got to go in there with a chip on our shoulder and understand its going to be a dog fight every single game, just like the season was." Their starting lineup goes into the series with 24 games of playoff experience to Brooklyns 399. The average age of the Nets first unit - complete with veterans and future hall of famers - is eight years older than Torontos. Its a clash of old and young, the battle-tested versus the unproven soldiers. "Experience is one thing but youve got to go play," said Casey, who is also venturing into uncharted waters, his first postseason as a head coach. "You have to go out and compete, its why they play the games. Our guys are going to be ready." "Theyve got a lot of older veterans that have been in the league 10-plus years so thats an advantage that we have," DeRozan said. "We understand that theyre experienced and everything but hey, who isnt? Once you come in this league youre going against players all season that are experienced in some way.dddddddddddd You just have to find a way to win." The Raptors and Nets split a four-game season series, with each team winning one on the road. Perhaps it was fate. In a redditt AMA chat last month, Terrence Ross identified the Nets as a preferred playoff matchup, to which Brooklyns Andray Blatche took issue and responded, "Ross asked for this, so theyve got to back up their words." These teams faced off in the 2007 playoffs - Toronto the third seed, the Nets, then in New Jersey, the sixth - after the Raptors won their first and only other division title. It was the first postseason experience for the likes of Chris Bosh, Jose Calderon and Anthony Parker, among others. That inexperience against a veteran Nets team - led by Kidd, Vince Carter and Richard Jefferson - proved costly, as inexperience tends to be in the playoffs. This Raptors team believes theyre different, that they have something special. They may be right. As most observers - both devoted and casual alike - are aware and will continue to be force-fed ad nauseam ahead of their first postseason game since 2008, the Raptors rapid return to relevance in the East was unexpected. Generous prognosticators billed them as a conference wild card, a fringe playoff team, at best. Division winner? No chance. Not with a pair of entitled New York-area giants and their gargantuan payrolls occupying the Atlantic. Internally, expectations were being tempered, justifiably so. After years of false promises, the word "playoffs" was quickly dismissed in place of a new goal; "growth". They were indeed a wild card in the East. A newly structured front office, an expiring head coach and starting point guard, an $18 million experiment inherited from the previous regime. "We didnt go into the season thinking we were going to be division winners," Casey admitted. "That was our goal but we knew that was going to be a lofty goal. We always go in trying to swing for the fences. Once the trade happened, no one knew. The guys kept working, kept working, kept working and [it] kind of came together." The Raptors were 6-12 before that fabled evening in Los Angeles, the night Rudy Gay was shipped to Sacramento and the fortunes of a long-suffering franchise began to turn. From that point on they would finish the season with a record of 42-22, tops in the East. Some will shrug them off as the poster team of a historically weak Eastern Conference and at one point, early in the season, that may have been the case. However, they made it here on their own merit. Theyre one just four teams, in either conference, to finish in the top 10 in both offensive and defensive efficiency. Their 22 road wins, a franchise record, tied Miami and Washington for the best mark in the East and they finished with 16-14 against the superior Western Conference. Their individual and collective accomplishments seem countless. Their starting five has won more games than any other in team history, each player putting up career highs in minutes logged and scoring. On Monday they hung their second division championship banner and set a new franchise mark in wins. Six months ago that would have been more than enough. Now, its an appetizer. Theyve tasted success and they want more. No one is satisfied. "When I first got here that was one of my biggest goals, to get this team back to the playoffs," said Kyle Lowry. "Im happy to be there but Im not satisfied. I want to go out there, I want to make some noise and show that were really a good team." ' ' '