First Division - Day 31

Real Madrid 0 - Barcelona 2

Madrid: Casillas; Sergio Ramos, Raúl Albiol, Garay, Arbeloa; Gago, Xavi Alonso, Van der Vaart (Raúl 69'), Marcelo (Guti 57'); Cristiano Ronaldo, Higuaín (Benzema 80'). 4-4-2.
Barcelona: Víctor Valdés; Puyol, Piqué, Milito (Márquez 80'), Maxwell (Iniesta 63'); Xavi, Busquets, Keita; Dani Alves, Messi, Pedro. 4-3-3.

Goals:
0-1. 32. Messi. Controlled Xavi's return pass and bounced shot past Casillas.
0-2. 56. Pedro. Ran on to Xavi through ball to steer shot wide of keeper.

Yellow cards: Xabi Alonso 12', Messi 19', Raúl Albiol 30', Xavi 30', Dani Alves 38', Maxwell 51', Sergio Ramos 61', Garay 83'.

Barcelona proved once again that they have the edge over Real Madrid after beating their arch-rivals 0-2 in the Bernabeu stadium. Guardiola surprised everyone with his line up, pushing Dani Alves in to a more attacking role for the first time this season. But the added weight in defence allowed the visitors to control the twin strike force of Ronaldo and Higuaín, and neither caused real problems for Víctor Valdés throughout the night.

Messi was also quiet early on as the defences dominated the opening minutes, but with just over half an hour gone he controlled a return pass from Xavi on his chest and got behind Albiol before clipping a shot between the defender and the keeper. Xabi Alonso went close a couple of times and Higuaín and Ronaldo both had chances either side of half time, but ten minutes after the restart Xavi found Pedro with a pinpoint pass for him to run past Arbeloa and curl a shot wide of Casillas.

Valdés had to make an important save from Van der Vaart after Guti put him through a few minutes later, but Casillas had to come to the rescue twice at the other end when Messi got free in front of goal. Substitute Raúl got the ball in the net as well only to have the play ruled out for a previous foul, and Benzema headed another chance wide near the end.

In the end though a comfortable victory for Barcelona, who set a new club record winning their fourth "clásico" in a row. Madrid's 100% home record this season comes to an end, and although there are still seven games to go, Guardiola's side are now strong favourites for a second league title in a row.