Real seize El Clasico spoils and title lead

Real Madrid won their first league Clasico in eight attempts to leapfrog Barcelona at the top of La Liga by virtue of second-half goals from Vinicius Junior and Mariano.

Barcelona enjoyed the better first-half chances, but both Arthur and a palpably out-of-sorts Lionel Messi were denied by Thibaut Courtois’s fine saves, while France’s

Antoine Griezmann, still struggling in the absence of the injured Luis Suarez to justify his £107 million summer transfer, blazed over from 12 yards.

Real Madrid had the more coherent strategy from the start of the match, using the pace of Vinicius and the Uruguay midfielder Fede Valverde to exploit the space behind Barcelona’s marauding full-backs.

The 19-year-old Vinicius, who alternately electrifies and frustrates the Bernabeu crowd, has become something of a special project for the manager Zinedine Zidane, who tutors him in one-to-one sessions

Lift-off: Vinicius Junior celebrates putting Real in front at the Bernabeu and prefers him to Gareth Bale on the left.

After creating five half-chances with his slick movement and fine understanding with Karim Benzema, he finally made the breakthrough in the 71st minute, cutting in off the left wing to rattle a shot that clipped the lunging Gerard Pique on the toe and crept in at the near post.

Messi had the opportunity to equalise with a dart down the inside-left channel, but the old acceleration was missing and he was caught both by Marcelo and Raphael Varane, players he has humiliated in the past. The crowd’s roar for the tackle was almost as loud as the one that greeted the goal.

Mariano, a late substitute, secured the deserved victory after a testing week for Zidane, following the 2-1 home defeat by Manchester City in the first leg of their last-16 Champions League tie.

He cut in off the right wing when Barcelona had committed too many men forward two minutes into injury time and wrong-footed Marc Andre ter Stegen with a clever shimmy to beat him at the near post.