Dominant Madrid Beat Barca in 250th El Clasico, Top LaLiga 

Clinical Real Madrid beat Barcelona 3-1  in the 250th El Clasico to go top of La Liga. The defeat was Catalan side first league defeat of the season. 

Karim Benzema scored Real’s opener after Vinicius Jr’s shot had been saved into his path by Marc-Andre ter Stegen. 

Federico Valverde doubled the champions’ lead before half-time with a lovely 20-yard drive. 

Ferran Torres pulled one back from Robert Lewandowski’s flick-on but Rodrygo settled it with a penalty. 

The rivals started the day with seven wins and a draw from their opening eight games – but Real have now gone three points clear unbeaten so far.

This was Xavi’s first away La Liga defeat in almost a year in charge of Barcelona.

Barcelona looked as if they were on their way back to the top of Spanish football towards the end of last season when they beat Real 4-0 at the Bernabeu. 

They gambled in the summer by spending a lot of their future earnings on signings. The club hoped it would lead to instant success, which would in turn lead to more earnings. 

But they face early elimination from the Champions League – and showed again how they are still behind their old rivals. 

This is only their first defeat of the season – and they are still within three points of top spot in La Liga. But this is El Clasico – a game managers dare not lose. 

Something for Xavi to think about is how they looked better after bringing on youngsters in Ferran Torres, Gavi and Ansu Fati.