Football
ESPN staff 9y

Real Madrid take clasico honours with 3-1 win after early Barcelona goal

Real Madrid took the clasico honours as they beat Barcelona 3-1 in the first meeting of the two Spanish giants this season.

With Luis Suarez handed a starting berth for the first time, Neymar opened the scoring for Barca inside five minutes with a wonderful curling effort as he picked up the ball and slotted it coolly past Iker Casillas.

Madrid got level before the half-time break as Marcelo broke free down the left and crossed low, only for Gerard Pique to handle and concede a penalty. Claudio Bravo in the Barcelona goal had not conceded in the league all season, but Cristiano Ronaldo stepped up and continued his incredible scoring run by netting the spot-kick.

Then Madrid took over in the second half. Pepe leaped highest to head home from a corner five minutes after the break and Karim Benzema doubled the lead when he capitalised on a counter-attack to score with a low shot that went in off the post on 61.

Suarez, who was quiet throughout the game, went off on 69 minutes and Barcelona were unable to get back into the game as their lead at the top of La Liga was cut to a single point.

Valencia moved up to third after getting back to winning ways with a comfortable 3-1 victory over struggling Elche.

Los Che were beaten at Deportivo La Coruna last week but showed no signs of the first defeat of their league season affecting them at the Mestalla, with Germany defender Shkodran Mustafi opening the scoring after 13 minutes.

Dani Parejo headed the hosts further in front before David Lomban compounded a miserable evening for Elche by turning into his own net just after the hour mark although Jonathas grabbed a consolation in time added on.

All three Valencia goals came from Pablo Piatti corners with Elche's also coming in a similar manner.

Athletic Bilbao won for the first time in La Liga since August as Xabier Etxeita's goal ensured a 1-0 win in a low-quality clash at Almeria.

Etxeita drove home low 12 minutes into the second half to give the visitors some reason for cheer in a campaign which has so far brought precious little cause for optimism.

The win was only Athletic's second in the league this season and ended a nine-match winless run in all competitions. It moved them a point behind their opponents, who themselves have only two league wins to their name this term.

Cordoba snatched a late equaliser against fellow strugglers Real Sociedad and the 1-1 draw moved them off the bottom of the table.

Sociedad had looked set to pick up only their second league victory of the season after Inigo Martinez's first-half goal saw them leading heading into the dying moments at Cordoba.

However, with barely three minutes left on the clock, Cordoba striker Xisco turned in the rebound after the ball had come back off the post to salvage a point for the hosts and leave Sociedad stunned.

Eibar and Granada also shared the spoils in a 1-1 draw at the Ipurua Municipal Stadium.

Granada were looking to arrest a four-match losing streak against Eibar and they made the best possible start when Allan Nyom put them in front after just eight minutes.

But newly promoted Eibar, who have still not won at home since they beat Sociedad on the opening day of the season, equalised through Eneko Boveda to claim a point.

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