Barcelona's Thierry Henry (L) shoots to score past Real Madrid's goalkeeper Iker Casillas during their Spanish first division soccer match at Santiago Bernabeu stadium in Madrid May 2, 2009.

The fate of the game was effectively sealed in a two minute spell in the second half. Sergio Ramos scored with a header to bring Madrid back into the game after 56 minutes. But barely a minute later, Henry scored his second of the night, beating the offside trap to steer the ball home from 25 yards, with Casillas off his line.

From then on it was just a question of how many goals Barcelona would score.

Messi made it 5-2 with 15 minutes left and defender Gerard Pique sealed Madrid's misery with slightly over five minutes on the clock and the home fans already leaving their seats.

To Real Madrid's credit, their players kept working until the final whistle, but Barcelona is quite simply a much better team.