Barça take big step to the title after Clásico thriller | OneFootball

Barcelona put themselves even close to winning La Liga after a thrilling El Clásico victory.

The first half saw six goals scored in Barcelona with the visitors taking a two-goal lead before Barça fought back.

Wojciech Szczesny was guilty of bringing down Kylian Mbappé (who escaped a possible offside call) in the area with the Frenchman then dispatching the resulting penalty.

That goal came inside the first five minutes and it was 2-0 in the 14th minute when Vinícius Júnior played Mbappé through on goal with the French forward keeping his cool but slotting away his shot.

The deficit was reduced just a few minutes later when Ferrán Torres flicked on a corner from the left with Eric García then heading past Thibaut Courtois.

Lamine Yamal was always the likely danger man for Barcelona and the gifted teenager provided an already trademark curling effort from the left from Torres's layoff to level the score in the 32nd minute.

Then just over a minute later, Barça took the lead. Pedri picked up the ball in midfield before finding Raphinha on the left to make it 3-2.

It was 4-2 just before the break. Torres completed a first-half hat-trick of assists as he picked up a ball that Raphinha was fighting for on the edge of the Real Madrid area before rolling it back into the path of the Brazilian to finish from close range.

There was just one more goal in the second half but there could and probably should have been more.

Early on in the second half Raphinha thought he was onside as he burst through and set up the ball for Lamine Yamal but the former Leeds man just strayed offside.

Mbappé completed his hat-trick and pulled one back for Los Blancos when Vinícius was played in behind the Barça defence before laying the ball off for his teammate to score.

Raphinha had another big chance to finish when he got onto the end of a cross from close range while 21-year-old Víctor Muñoz could have had a dream debut for Madrid when he found himself in a great position but fluffed his lines.

With seconds left to go, Torres thought he scored a stylish winner only for VAR to rule it out for handball.

That didn't matter in the end though, with Barcelona firmly establishing themselves as future champions as they see themselves seven points clear of their rivals with three games left to play. A win away to local rivals Espanyol on Thursday could seal the deal.