Write off Barcelona at your peril: The European champions show their worth at the Santiago Bernabeu - originally posted on Soccerlens.com

Saturday's El Clasico between Barcelona and Real Madrid lived up to all expectations; there was passion, spell-bounding skill and goals the only thing missing was the heavily anticipated Madrid victory.

Barcelona warmed up nicely for Saturday's 'El Clasico' with a fine 5-0 thrashing of Levante thanks to a double by Cesc Fabregas, Joan Cuenca, Lionel Messi and Alexis Sanchez. The win keeps La Blaugrana second in the table on 34 points, three points behind Real Madrid but having played one match more.

FIFA's final 3 man shortlist for the coveted World Player of the year award were announced yesterday and usual suspects Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo made the Cut. Joining the pair is Messi's Barcelona team mate Xavi.

Messi who has won the award on two previous occasions, is looking to make history by wining the award for the third consecutive year at the award gala ceremony in Zurich's Kongresshaus on January 9th.

Former Barcelona coach Cesar Menotti believes that Real Madrid are afraid of Barca ever since they were beaten 5-0 in La Liga last season.

The Blaugrana hammered the Santiago Bernabeu side in November 2010, and Menotti feels that Madrid have never really recovered since that heavy loss at Camp Nou, despite having met several more times after that game.

REAL MADRID
• Real Madrid, líder de la Liga BBVA, ha ganado los últimos 15 partidos consecutivos en todas las competencias en las que ha participado, igualando su récord histórico de 41 años.
• El Madrid no ha perdido puntos en más de dos meses y medio: su último tropiezo fue un empate en cero frente al Racing Santander el 21 de Septiembre de este mismo año.

szólj hozzá: Real Madrid 1-3 Barcelona

There are fewer joys in the world than the spectacle of seeing Barca coming to the Santiago Bernabeu and beat the crap out of Jose Mourinho's brownshirts. Which they proceeded to do summarily in the first edition of this year's El Clasico.

Real is considered favorites to win La Liga and the Champions League this season but they need to solve the riddle that Barca poses them.

Cesc goal helps Barcelona past Real Madrid 1-3 (Photo: REUTERS/Sergio Perez)

Barcelona recovered from conceding the quickest goal in El Clasico history to defeat Real Madrid 3-1 at the Santiago Bernabeu, delivering a decisive blow in the race for the La Liga title.

The victory snaps Madrid's 15 game winning streak and sees Barcelona leapfrog their bitter rivals to reclaim first place in the provisional Primera Division standings.

FC Barcelona resumed domestic action last night following their triumph in the FIFA Club World Cup and helped themselves to a 9-0 rout over third tier side L'Hospitalet in the Round of 32 of the Copa Del Rey (Spanish Cup).

Barcelona, who already led 1-0 from the first leg of this tie, played a relatively strong side against their Catalonian neighbours and had Pedro to thank for getting the ball rolling after just 11 minutes when converting a penalty to open the scoring.

By David Chalmers

If you'll excuse the pun and read on...

Over a number of years, football has played with systems and tried to define formations while the brains on the bench tell us that their players aren't confined to a sole set of instructions, but taking a look at the Premier League this season, it's looking increasingly more like target men are the focal point of most sides at this moment in time.