Barcelona: Bravo, Alves, Pique, Mathieu, Alba, Rakitic (Busquets 76), Mascherano, Iniesta (Xavi 80), Messi, Suarez, Neymar (Rafinha 85).
Real Madrid: Casillas, Carvajal, Pepe (Varane 73), Ramos, Marcelo, Modric (Borges 88), Kroos, Isco (Jese 80), Bale, Ronaldo, Benzema.
Luis Suarez’s brilliant goal gives Barcelona a much needed El Classico victory as they stretch their advantage at the top by four points. Ronaldo shines for the Madrid boys but Messi fails to make his mark.
Barca took an early lead via Jeremy Mathieu, who was the villain of the reverse fixture in October, as he scored a glancing header past Iker Casillas. Barca asserted their dominance over the Blancos by taking a well-deserved lead.
But this spurred up the boys in white as they started to aggressively hound their rivals in search of an equalizer. And they did get one and none other than Cristiano Ronaldo could’ve make that happen. The Portuguese scored from six yards as he prodded the ball home past Bravo. This goal gave Real even greater boost and they came agonizingly close to take the lead via Ronaldo, who rattled the crossbar with his thumping volley.
Both teams looked locked in an exciting battle at the end of the half and it looked like only something magical would give all the three points to either of them. And then came El Pistolero! Luis Suarez made his mark into the La Blaugrana folklore in his second Classico as he scored a peach of a goal in the 56th minute.
Neymar missed a sitter from the point blank range but Barca managed to fend off Ronaldo, who was the lone ranger for the Real Madrid.
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