By JOHN BOSCHINI
It was a big day for Spain's top two teams as Barcelona and Real Madrid put on offensive clinics ahead of next week's El Clasico.
Lionel Messi scored a hat trick as Barcelona routed Almeria 8-0. Messi opened the scoring in the 17th minute, kicking off a torrid 19 minutes in which Barcelona scored five times. Goals from Andres Iniesta, Alemria captain Santiago Acsiete and Pedro preceded Messi's second goal in the 37th minute.
Barcelona's three second-half goals came between the 62nd and 73rd minutes with Messi's third goal and a brace from substitute Bojan KrKic. Messi now has 101 goals in 154 Barcelona appearances.
The hefty defeat was the last straw for Almeria manager Juan Manuel Lillo, who was fired mere hours after the final whistle.
Not to be outdone, La Liga leaders Real Madrid had a lopsided victory of their own, downing Athletic Bilbao 5-1 at the Bernabeu with the help of a Christiano Ronaldo hat trick.
Gonzalo Higuain broke through for Madrid in the 19th minute by fighting off two defenders and beating Gorka Iraizoz. Ronaldo added his first on the half hour mark with with a driven shot from 20 yards out. Bilbao narrowed the lead just before halftime with a goal from Fernando Llorente.
In the second half, it was all Real Madrid. Sergio Ramos converted a penalty in the 57th minute, Iraizoz horribly misplayed Ronaldo's free kick five minutes later to make it 4-1 before the Portugese international converted a penalty kick to complete the hat trick.
Madrid now sits one point above Barcelona after 12 games and is already eight clear of third-place Villareal.
Here are highlights of both matches.
Barcelona 8, Almeria 0
Real Madrid 5, Athletic Bilbao 1
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What do you think of both teams' performances? Can Real Madrid hold off Barcelona down the stretch? How awful is Ronaldo's mohawk? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below.
pretty sure Real has 11 more titles than Barca, not exactly my definition of a soon to be challenger.
La Liga has one of the greatest clubs in the history of soccer (Barca) and a soon to be challenger with Real under Mourinho, and soccer fans are complaining!? Every European league has two big clubs. Barcelona just happens to have GROWN one of the best teams in history. Talk about looking the gift horse in the mouth. If you want to watch a league without superclubs so badly, why don’t you tune into the Coca Cola Championship. Meanwhile, the rest of us can tune into the Champions League continuous production of amazing soccer matches.
Do you realize how much can be earned by all sorts of game-fixing in European football? High scores, surprises, chelsea losing 0-3 at home to … whom? etc etc. Not saying most games are fixed, but the potential for big gains is very high. And some owners have plenty of experience with shady dealings.
Calling La Liga a two horse race in the past was a little unfair but, based on what has been happening in the last two seasons it is starting to look like the Scottish Premier League.
I agree. Took the wife to USA v some tiny island at the HDC. She said it was like watching somebody “squish kittens.”
How is it not boring when the only games to look forward to is when barca and madid play each other? How is a 8-0 game exciting?
101 Goals in 154 games is unreal WOW.
Llorente is the real deal. Reports say he’s moving to a big club come January
cant wait for the first person to bitch about la liga being ‘boring’.
two best teams in the world by a good margin.
What an amazing showing.
Wow. Talk about being demoralized. I wonder what was going on in the fans’ heads exactly; I assume it was probably violent.