El Clasico: Bellingham’s winner fires Real Madrid to victory over Barcelona

Jude Bellingham scored and assisted for the first time in La Liga this season as Real Madrid overcame Barcelona in a breathless and fiery El Clasico at the Bernabeu.

The England midfielder produced a defence-splitting through ball to tee up Kylian Mbappe for the 22nd-minute opener, before his 43rd-minute tap-in restored his side’s lead, five minutes after Fermin Lopez had levelled.

It was Bellingham’s fourth goal in five appearances in clashes between the league’s top two sides, with Xabi Alonso’s men moving five points clear of Barcelona as the game ended with Pedri sent off and tempers flaring on the touchline.

Real lost all four Clasicos in all competitions last season, but from minute one set about breaching Barcelona’s high defensive line.

The hosts were awarded a penalty when Vinicius Jr went down inside the opening two minutes, but a video assistant referee (VAR) review determined that the Real Madrid winger had kicked the leg of Lamine Yamal before he went down.

Ten minutes after VAR had ruled out a stunning 25-yard Mbappe volley from the edge of the box for a marginal offside, Bellingham spun away from Pedri before sliding a pass through to the French striker to slot past Wojciech Szczesny.

Madrid peppered Barcelona’s third-choice goalkeeper with shots but were caught out by a 38th-minute counter-attack that ended with Marcus Rashford squaring for Fermin to equalise.

More controversy followed as Hansi Flick’s side went behind again before the break.

Barcelona’s players felt Real defender Dean Huijsen fouled Pau Cubarsí as he tried to clear Eder Militao’s header across the face of goal, but Bellingham was left unmarked at the back post to score.

Tempers flared after Pedri was shown a second yellow card for a lunge on Aurelien Tchouameni deep into injury time.