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There was plenty of drama early on as Madrid was awarded a penalty just four minutes in when Lamine Yamal slid in on Vinicius Junior, though the decision was overturned after a VAR review.

Kylian Mbappe thought he had given Madrid the lead in the 12th minute but saw his effort ruled out for offside before eventually netting the opener 10 minutes later, finishing calmly after latching onto a sublime defence-splitting pass from Jude Bellingham.

Wojciech Szczesny was then forced into a brilliant reflex save to keep Los Blancos at bay as Dean Huijsen strode forward to poke at Eduardo Camavinga’s floated cross over the top of the defence.

It was end-to-end action from then on and Barcelona found its equaliser in the 38th minute when Pedri played Marcus Rashford through, with Fermin Lopez on hand to thump home from the latter's centre.

But parity did not last long as Bellingham restored Madrid’s lead on the stroke of half-time. Vinicius raced down the wing and clipped a looping cross to the back post, where Eder Militao nodded back across goal for Bellingham to tap in from close range.

Los Blancos were then handed a golden chance to put the game to bed as Eric Garcia was penalised for a hand-ball inside the box seven minutes into the second half, but Mbappe failed to dispatch the spot-kick, with Szczesny making a splendid top-corner save.

The host side continued to dictate play and thought it had a third when Bellingham finished coolly again, but the flag was raised for offside against Brahim Diaz.

Tensions flared late on as Pedri was shown a second yellow card deep into stoppage time for a reckless slide on Aurelien Tchouameni.

Madrid comfortably managed the closing stages to secure the win, remaining top of LaLiga on 27 points, five ahead of second-placed Barca.