There was no fooling around with the big boys in Spain today (May 2nd) as Barcelona completely ripped apart Real Madrid in all aspects of the game, except yellow cards and fouls, and handed them their heads on a plate in a 6-2 demolition job. To make things worse, the shredding took place in front of 80,000 fans at the Bernebeu in Madrid. This should more-or-less end Madrid’s chances at catching Barcelona and taking a third straight Primera Division crown, as they are seven points back with four games remaining.

Thierry Henry and Lionel Messi both scored a pair with Carles Puyol and Gerard Pique chipping in one each. It was Real’s first loss since Barcelona beat them at the Nou Camp back in December.

Madrid has been on fire since then by earning 52 points out of a possible 54 points, but were stopped dead in their tracks today. Barca can sew up the title next weekend if they beat Villarreal and Madrid loses to Valencia.

Higuain actually gave Madrid in a lead when he scored his 19th league goal in the 14th minute, but about five minutes later Barcelona was up 2-1 and just kept on coming with attack after attack. Messi put Barca up 3-1 up in the 36th minute, but Real made a game of it by bringing it back to 3-2 in the 56th minute. It didn’t last long though as Henry made it 4-2 just over a minute later.

That seemed to be the killer blow and Messi made it 5-2 in the 75th minute and Pique added to the embarrassment in the 83rd with Barcelona’s 100th league goal of the season.

In other Spanish games Numancia crawled off the bottom of the standings by beating Malaga 2-0.  Meanwhile, Seville won 2-0 at Villarreal with goals from Luis Fabiano and Freddie Kanoute.

In the English Premier League, Manchester United stayed on track to retain their title with a 2-0 win away at a woeful Middlesbrough, with Ryan Giggs and Ji-Sung Park scoring. I don’t know how Gareth Southgate keeps his job there. He must have some compromising photos of somebody, because he just doesn’t have what it takes to be a big league manager. So it’s no surprise that Middlesbrough are in spot and almost guaranteed to go down into the Championship League where they belong. United are now six points clear of second place Liverpool and Chelsea, with the same amount of games played with Liverpool and a game in hand on Chelsea.

Chelsea managed to catch up to Liverpool with a 3-1 win at home over Fulham in a London derby. Arsenal embarrassed Portsmouth 3-0 at Fratton Park and Portsmouth had Noe Pamorot sent off. Tottenham managed to keep their home record looking pretty good with a 1-0 win over cellar dwellers West Brom. That doesn’t really say much though. Manchester City beat another less-than-mediocre team with a 3-1 win over Blackburn at home. Each team scored on a penalty. West Ham beat Stoke 1-0 at The Britannia and in another barn burner; Wigan and Bolton drew 0-0 at the JJB Stadium.