Ronald Araujo snaps at Vinicius Jr. after Barcelona's worst loss to Real Madrid in 60 years

Karim Benzema blew away FC Barcelona with a hat-trick as Real Madrid thrashed their arch-rivals 4-0 in the second leg of the Copa del Rey semi-finals on Wednesday.

Even Brazilian winger Vinicius Junior played a crucial part in Real Madrid's win at Camp Nou. It was Vinicius who opened the scoring in the match, while he also assisted Benzema's third goal and also won a penalty in the second half, which was successfully converted from the spot by the French superstar.

In the past, Vinicius had struggled when up against Barcelona defender Ronald Araujo. But in the latest meeting between the Clasico rivals, Vinicius got the better of the Uruguayan centre-back convincingly. But Araujo was not happy with some of the Brazilian winger's antics during the match.

Vinicius gets better of Araujo

Araujo, whose actual position is in the central defence, was especially deployed at right-back on Wednesday to solely handle Vinicius. While Araujo had been successful in keeping the Brazil international quiet in previous El Clasicos this season, it was not the case this time as Vinicius managed to make an impact in Real Madrid's 4-0 win, which marked Barcelona's worst home defeat to Los Blancos in 60 years.

Going into the second leg of the Copa del Rey semi-finals, Barcelona were 1-0 up and were clear favourites as they had conceded just two goals at Camp Nou all season domestically. Yet, Carlo Ancelotti's side put past four goals and on an aggregate of 4-1, Real Madrid reached the final of the competition.

After beating the Xavi Hernandez-managed Barcelona at the beginning of the 2022-23 season, Los Blancos went on to lose three El Clasicos and did not look their best over the last few weeks. While Real Madrid are second in the La Liga table, Ancelotti's side still has a chance to win two trophies as they are alive in the Copa del Rey and the Champions League, in which they are the defending champions.

On any day, an encounter between Barcelona and Real Madrid does include several heated incidents and this time was no different. Even though Vinicius produced an excellent performance, he was dragged into on-field controversy, not a new thing for the Brazilian winger, as he clashed with Gavi and Ferran Torres on either side of the interval. At one point in the match, Araujo pushed Vinicius to the turf for mouthing at him.

'Vinicius will improve if he focuses on playing'

In a post-match interview, when Araujo was asked about his brawl with Vinicius, the Uruguayan defender admitted that he got a little heated because the Real Madrid star "was talking to my teammates all the time, messing with them." Araujo also went on to advise Vinicius to focus more on playing football.

"I always say that he is a great player who will improve much more if he focuses on playing. I'm respectful, but he was talking a lot and I got a little heated," Araujo said.

Regarding the defeat to Real Madrid, Araujo said he was sad "because we have not been able to get to the final and give joy to the fans. We didn't do well despite the fact that we had a great first half, but we conceded that goal and then after the second we declined a lot," Araujo explained.

Araujo admitted that "losing against Real Madrid always hurts" but moving forward, however, the Blaugrana need to put the loss behind themand turn their focus immediately to Monday's league meeting with Girona because La Liga is Barcelona's "main objective."

Barcelona are still well on course to dethrone Real Madrid as Spanish top-flight title holders. The Catalans are 12 points clear at the top of the 2022-23 La Liga table with 11 games still left in the league season.