Barcelona are back! Xavi's masterplan comes to life in Clasico crushing of Real Madrid

 

The Blaugrana ran out 4-0 winners at Santiago Bernabeu, and should have scored plenty more, in what was a dominant display at the home of their rivals

Match statistics: Real Madrid 0-4 Barcelona

Everybody could see it happening, piece by piece, but nobody fully believed it, until now.

Xavi Hernandez has resurrected Barcelona; Barca are back.

Their 4-0 destruction of Real Madrid at a broken Santiago Bernabeu will go down with other historic results, like the 6-2 in 2009 or the 5-0 in 2010, but perhaps it will prove most similar to the Blaugrana's 2-1 win in the Spanish capital in 2004.

Xavi scored that night for Barcelona, who did not win the league, but did help Valencia overtake Real Madrid to claim La Lig. More importantly for the Catalans, it kick-started a new era.

After years of suffering at the hands of their eternal rivals, Barca made that night a turning point. Great success followed, but even before the trophies began flooding in, supporters understood how big it was.

Around four thousands fans headed to the airport to greet the team on their return from Madrid, sensing a profound change was coming.

This victory, humiliating for the league leaders but not likely to be damaging to their title hopes given their nine-point advantage on second-place Sevilla, feels similar.