Real beat Barca in 250th ElClasico

CLINICAL Real Madrid beat Barcelona in the 250th ElClasico to go top of La Liga and inflict their rivals’ 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 go three points clear now as they remain unbeaten.

This was a first away LaLiga defeat in almost a year in charge of Barcelona for Xavi.

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.