Barcelona win seven-goal thriller in final El Clasico to move closer to La Liga title

Victory on Sunday puts Barcelona seven points clear and marked their first quadruple over Real in over 40 years

Barcelona are now seven points clear of their fierce rivals (Getty Images)

Barcelona got the better of Real Madrid for the fourth time this season - securing the quadruple for the first time since 1982-83 - as they won El Clasico 4-3 to take a huge step towards securing the La Liga title.

With only three La Liga matches remaining Real Madrid are on course for a trophyless season after a disappointing campaign from Carlo Ancelotti’s side, but they went 2-0 up within 15 minutes after a horror start by Barcelona.

Keeper Wojciech Szczesny brought down Kylian Mbappe within the opening five minutes after a mistake by Pau Cubarsi left the striker through on goal, and the Frenchman put the visitors ahead from the spot, doubling their lead ten minutes later.

But from there Barca recovered brilliantly, with goals from Eric Garcia and Lamine Yamal and a double by Raphinha completing another stunning comeback inside the first half, before Mbappe secured a hat-trick with the only goal after the restart in the 70th minute.

Fermin Lopez looked to have secured a fifth for the hosts in stoppage time before it was disallowed for handball, while Mbappe had a fourth disallowed himself as Real fought back in the closing stages.

Barcelona are now seven points clear of Real Madrid in the league having bounced back in style from Tuesday’s gut-wrenching Champions League semi-final defeat to Inter Milan at San Siro.

Mbappe became the league's leading scorer with 27 goals, two more than Barcelona's Robert Lewandowski, who did not feature on Sunday despite making the bench.

But it wasn’t enough to prevent Real Madrid losing all four matches against their fierce rivals this season. The Catalan club had already won 4-0 at the Bernabeu in the first league match in October, 5-2 in the Spanish Super Cup final in January, and 3-2 in a dramatic Copa del Rey final last month.

Lamine Yamal was superb for Barcelona once again, scoring the equaliser (REUTERS)

The result, which virtually ends Madrid's hopes of finishing the season with a title, adds pressure on coach Carlo Ancelotti, who is rumoured to be leaving the club to take over Brazi's national team.

Former Madrid player Xabi Alonso, who recently announced he is leaving Bayer Leverkusen, is widely expected to be Madrid's next coach.

Needing to win to get back into the title race, Madrid got off to a great start before Barcelona responded. Garcia started Barcelona's comeback with a header off a corner kick in the 19th, Yamal equalised with a curling shot into the far corner in the 32nd, and Raphinha scored in the 34th and 45th minutes for Barcelona to lead 4-2 at halftime in a stunning turnaround.

Additional reporting by AP