Real Madrid beat Barcelona 2-1 at Camp Nou to halve gap to La Liga leaders

French superstar Kylian Mbappe scores a brace for Madrid to inflict Barcelona's first domestic defeat of the campaign.

French superstar Kylian Mbappe scores a brace for Madrid to inflict Barcelona’s first domestic defeat of the campaign. Kylian Mbappe struck twice to earn Jose Mourinho’s Real Madrid a 2-1 El Clasico victory over La Liga leaders Barcelona at Camp Nou, cutting the gap to three points. French superstar Mbappe opened the scoring before half-time on Sunday, then slotted home late on to inflict Barca’s first domestic defeat of the campaign after Raphinha had equalised for the champions. Real Madrid remain third, behind Atletico Madrid and Hansi Flick’s Barca, who had won their first nine games before a chastening week. The Catalans suffered a second straight defeat after losing against Paris Saint-Germain on Tuesday in the Champions League.

Barca won six of the seven previous Clasicos since the German arrived, but were surprisingly subdued against Mourinho’s side. “In general, we didn’t have a great game. In the first half, we weren’t ourselves; there were a lot of things we could have done better,” Barcelona midfielder Pedri told DAZN. “We wanted to win the Clasico in front of our fans, but the season is very long… a league is not won here.” Los Blancos, without suspended winger Vinicius Junior, won their fifth straight game across all competitions, and are finding their footing under veteran Portuguese coach Mourinho. After two trophyless seasons,