El Clasico 2016/17: Real Madrid 2-3 Barcelona - The Best & Worst Players

Real Madrid and Barcelona came up against each other in one of the closely contested El Clasicos of recent time. The hosts took the lead through Casemiro after Sergio Ramos’ shot had ricocheted off the post but their joy was short-lived as Lionel Messi equalised withing 5 minutes with a trademark finish after evading challenges from two Madrid players.

It was the visitors who then took the lead through Ivan Rakitic, with the Croatian firing home a piledriver into the far post from the edge of the box. The game was evenly poised until that time with the Catalans dominating possession and Madrid happy to sit back and catch the visitors on the counter. However, Los Blancos captain Sergio Ramos was shown a straight red card for a two-footed lunge on Messi soon after and it looked like the Blaugrana would walk away with the 3 points comfortably.

It was not to be as super-sub James Rodriguez pulled the hosts level in the 85^th minute to set up for an exciting finale. Just as it looked that the game was heading for a draw, there was another twist in the tale as Messi stepped up to the occasion and fired home the winner with the last kick of the game.

The winning goal saw Messi notch his 500^th goal for Barcelona in all competitions while it also blew open the La Liga title race with the Blaugrana leapfrogging Los Blancos at the top of the table courtesy of a better head-to-head record.

Here are the best and worst players from a memorable night at the Santiago Bernabeu:

Best Player: Marc-Andre Ter Stegen/Keylor Navas

The two goalkeepers almost stole the headlines, almost!

If not for the magic of Lionel Messi towards the end of the game, this game might have gone down in history as the game when two goalkeepers helped their sides walk away with one point apiece.

While Ter Stegen made 12 saves against Madrid – the most he has ever made in a La Liga match, Navas was not behind. The Costa Rican was, almost, equal to whatever Barcelona threw at him and denied Messi and company on several occasions.