STUNNING 4-3 WIN

Barcelona managed a stunning 4-3 win over archrivals Real Madrid in the latest El Clasico, which has been one of the best in recent decades.

Lionel Messi scored a hat-trick in this match, as Barcelona closed the gap to their rivals to just one point. Despite this win, the club remains third in the league behind the two Madrid teams. The victory, however, has given the Catalan club a huge amount of confidence according to defender Gerard Pique, who returned to the match just-in-time from an injury.

Real Madrid were reduced to 10 men after defender Sergio Ramos was sent off with a straight red card after his challenge on Neymar in the second half. This proved to be the vital catalyst in helping Barcelona, who have been suffering from a poor run of form, to their win. The club had warmed up for this encounter with a 7-0 thrashing of Osasuna last week, while Real Madrid were involved in the Champions League during the midweek action. Karim Benzema scored two goals for Madrid with Cristiano Ronaldo getting the other from a penalty.

Andres Iniesta opened the scoring with a fine effort from the edge of the box. Barcelona have the tougher fixtures in the remainder of the campaign, but this extraordinary win will give them a lot of belief according to Pique.

“We knew it was a hugely important match. Our chances of winning the league hinged on the result and it was a great spectacle. I’m sure the fans will have gone away very satisfied. This is a country where at the end of a spectacle like this, in which both teams put in a great performance, people forget about that and go on about the refereeing. That’s very unfair on the sport and the football world, because I think people enjoyed the match a lot,” said Pique.