Barcelona Clasico win piles pressure on Rafa Benitez, Atletico stutter in win

ESPN FC's Paul Mariner and Alexis Nunes dissect a disastrous day for Rafa Benitez's Real Madrid in El Clasico.

Dermot Corrigan recaps what you need to know from the weekend's La Liga action, as the Clasico ends in a Barca win and Atletico Madrid pick up another win.

1. Benitez picked Florentino Perez's team, but that won't necessarily save him

Real Madrid manager Rafa Benitez was in characteristically obstinate form at Friday's pregame news conference. "I've been managing teams for 25 or 30 years and will keep doing it the same way," he said in response to questioning of his handling of the squad.

But then the Madrid XI picked for Saturday's Clasico went against everything the 55-year-old former Valencia, Liverpool, Inter Milan, Chelsea and Napoli coach has shown in his career. The usually cautious Benitez chose a galactico-rich, attack-heavy 4-2-3-1 formation, with Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale, James Rodriguez and Karim Benzema all up top. El Pais said this lineup was warmly greeted by the club's hierarchy before the game. "Benitez put out the team his president would have played," AS editor Alfredo Relano wrote.

Such a feeling explains why, after Barcelona had completely controlled the game to win 4-0, Benitez was not the one signaled out by the unhappy Bernabeu crowd. Instead, club president Florentino Perez took the brunt of the anger -- white hanky "panolada" included. Ronaldo was again below par and again whistled by his own fans. Benitez himself then talked repeatedly about "shared responsibility" at his postgame news conference. While Luis Enrique enjoyed the best day at the Bernabeu, Rafa Benitez did as he was told, but Real still lost.

This all might be true, but it also somewhat misses the point. Florentino has now won just 11 of his 38 Clasicos as Madrid president. But at the Bernabeu, it is always the coach who pays the price for failure. Even though leaks claim Rafa retains the confidence of the club hierarchy, he could soon pay the price for not sticking to what he knows best.

2. Luis Enrique's finest day as Barca coach

Barcelona won the treble of Champions League, La Liga and Copa del Rey titles in Luis Enrique's first season in charge, but Saturday's win in Madrid was possibly his proudest moment of all.

All through last year, there was a feeling that Lionel Messi and other star players were pulling the team along, with Luis Enrique's tactical acumen not often talked about. But 16 months into his time as blaugrana coach, this was a victory with the Asturian's fingerprints all over it.

In the Asturian's first Clasico 12 months ago, neither his team selection nor tactics worked out, and Madrid won 3-1. However, Saturday's call to leave Lionel Messi on the bench and start Sergi Roberto as a nominal right-winger who would drop into midfield, went perfectly. The extra numbers in central areas were decisive, as even Madrid midfielder Luka Modric admitted afterward. Sergi Roberto laid on the first goal for Suarez in a super all-round performance, while Messi clearly had no issue entering in the second half with the game already won.

"This tastes of sacred glory, a win at the eternal rival," Luis Enrique said afterward. "Above all for the way we did it. You can win at the Bernabeu, but by being so superior, against such good players, is difficult. Throughout the game, we did what we had wanted to do, and it came out well."

For a former Madrid player regularly received with hostility at the Bernabeu, this must have been one of the sweetest days of his entire career.

3. Atletico still lurking dangerously but not scoring enough

Atletico Madrid moved above Madrid into second place in La Liga with a 1-0 win at Real Betis on Sunday, but it should really have been 4-0 or 5-0.

Diego Simeone's side went ahead after just seven minutes, when Koke knocked home after Fernando Torres' shot was saved. The visitors were dominating a poor Betis side but could not press home their advantage. Winger Yannick Ferreira-Carrasco and Torres faded completely out of the game. Antoine Griezmann blew two clear chances and had a decent penalty claim turned down. Substitutes Oliver Torres and Luciano Vietto also should have scored. At 1-0, the fear remained that Atletico could concede and drop another two points, like they did at Deportivo La Coruna late last month. Koke got Atletico on the board early, but their inability to score more goals is a growing concern.

So far this season, Atletico have managed to pick up 26 points from 12 games while scoring just 17 times. That's no easy feat. Meanwhile, the €75 million spent last summer on attackers Jackson Martinez, Carrasco and Vietto has so far brought just five goals among the trio. Torres has been stuck on 99 career Atletico strikes for more than two months.

Simeone's men remain defensively strong -- just two goals against in their past seven games in all competitions. But to keep challenging for trophies, they need to score more.

4. All changed Eibar even better this season

Villarreal's 1-1 home draw with Eibar on Sunday afternoon was probably the weekend's most entertaining game. The visitors went ahead early but then missed a penalty, the two clubs ended the game with 10 men, and the home side finally equalised late on.

Both sides could argue they deserved the three points, but on balance, a draw was fair. Results elsewhere also went their way -- especially Celta Vigo's losing the Galician derby 2-0 at Deportivo La Coruna, Valencia drawing 1-1 at home to lowly Las Palmas and Athletic Bilbao's 0-2 reverse at Granada. Villarreal are now in fourth and Eibar joint sixth.

The Basque minnows are pretty clearly taking advantage of their relegation reprieve last summer -- and with a totally new-look side. Eleven of the 14 players who featured Sunday joined last summer, while new coach Jose Luis Mendilibar also deserves credit. European football at tiny Ipurua next season remains an outside shot, but they will surely test a hurting Real Madrid there next Sunday.

5. Real Sociedad already moving on from Moyes

Real Sociedad's first game since sacking David Moyes as coach brought their first home victory of the 2015-16 campaign, as Sevilla were despatched 2-0 at Anoeta on Saturday.

Naturally, the win was not quite as straightforward as the results suggest. Real Sociedad's goals (from Imanol Agirretxe and Xabi Prieto) both came from calamitous defending by the usually dependable Sevilla midfielder Grzegorz Krychowiak. That referee Antonio Mateu Lahoz wrongly disallowed a Ciro Immobile strike at 0-0 didn't help, either.

But unlike recent home games under Moyes, in which leads were blown against Celta Vigo and Espanyol, the txuri-urdin side were able to see out the victory in former Barca-B coach Eusebio's first game in charge. On their sixth visit to Anoeta this season, the home fans finally got to celebrate three points.

Moyes claimed last week that he felt let down by the manner of his sacking. Meanwhile, his former team seems to have already moved on.