Barcelona breathed fresh life into their La Liga title hopes as Lionel Messi scored a last-minute winner against Real Madrid in a breathtaking match at the Bernabeu.
Goals from Casemiro and Messi in the first half set up the end-to-end second period. Ivan Rakitic fired Barca ahead minutes before Sergio Ramos was sent off.
James Rodriguez then came off the substitutes bench to level for 10-man Madrid, before Messi’s 500th Barcelona goal at the death won it for Luis Enrique’s side.
The world is watching El Clasico and former stars are joining them
El Clasico is amongst the world’s biggest sporting draws on television with the game regularly seen by more than 400million people worldwide.
Usually former Real and Barca stars get a VIP seat at wherever the game is being played but this time well-known names of Clasico’s past were viewing from further afield.
Former Barca captain Carlos Puyol watched the game with about a thousand refugees and migrants in Thessaloniki, Greece.
Ex-Real striker Raul and Gianluca Zambrotta, who spent two years at the Nou Camp, took in the derby on a rooftop in Manhattan.
Messi somehow finds another record to break
Messi must have thought he had run out of records to break in his Barcelona career but somehow with his first goal in El Clasico he wrote his name next to another landmark and surpassed a true great in doing so.
Messi is now the all-time El Clasico top-scorer in league games with 16 goals, surpassing Alfredo Di Stefano. For the record his second goal was his 500th for Barcelona.
He might have also broken a tooth
A run-in with Marcelo saw Messi hit the deck and come up with blood pouring from his mouth.
The Barca No 10 needed treatment and to stop the bleeding Messi was given a tissue to put in his mouth. It led to some amusing pictures of a bemused looking Messi looking a bit daft.
Ramos loves a red in El Clasico and Alejandro Hernandez loves to give them to him
A Sergio Ramos red card is hardly the most surprising thing in El Clasico, he has now been sent off 22 times in his career, five of those in games against Barca.
Ramos’ two-footed assault on Messi in the 77th minute saw referee Alejandro Hernandez produce a straight red card. The same official also sent off Ramos in the derby at the Nou Camp last year.
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