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A Raphinha and Lamine Yamal masterclass put Barcelona on the brink of another La Liga triumph after a remarkable 4-3 comeback win over Real Madrid on Sunday.
The fourth and final Clasico of the season started with a bang when Kylian Mbappe was brought down in the box by goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny, and the French forward dispatched the subsequent spot-kick in the fifth minute. Things then went from bad to worse for Barca when Mbappe was on hand to finish off a rapid-fire counter-attack to make it 2-0 just nine minutes later.
Madrid were indebted to their own 'keeper Thibaut Courtois after he made excellent stops to deny Eric Garcia and Yamal, but there was nothing he could do to stop the former's header in the 19th minute. The galvanised hosts kept pushing for an equaliser and got it in spectacular fashion when Yamal curled a stunning finish past a helpless Courtois just after the half-hour mark from the edge of the area.
A shell-shocked Madrid, who were still finding joy on the transition and with long balls over the top, could not handle Barca's high press and coughed up a third goal two minutes later through Raphinha. Then, mere moments after Los Blancos had a penalty overturned for offside in the build-up, Raphinha pinched the ball off a dawdling Lucas Vazquez, and then Ferran Torres set him up to tuck the ball home on the stroke of half-time.
Yamal looked to have grabbed his second after the break when he tapped in Raphinha's pass across the six-yard box, but the Barca captain was offside in the build-up. And just when it looked like the league leaders would cruise to victory, the lethal Mbappe grabbed his hat-trick after Vinicius Jr neatly set up the 26-year-old.
Raphinha then missed a sitter to put the contest to bed, and despite a nervy finale, which included both Mbapp and Fermin Lopez having goals chalked off, Hansi Flick's team moved seven points clear at the top of La Liga with just three matches remaining having beaten Madrid all four times in all competitions this season.
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