Real Madrid bests Barca in clásico

Carlo Ancelotti learned his lesson, and Real Madrid won the clásico on Sunday. After an embarrassing 4-0 loss at home to Barcelona last season, the Madrid coach made sure he didn’t try anything different with his team this time as Madrid won 3-1 to take the lead of the Spanish league. It also handed Barcelona another painful blow four days after the Catalan club’s hopes of advancing in the Champions League all but ended. Ancelotti, above, had used midfielder Luka Modric in the “false nine” position in attack last season and Barcelona took advantage to rout Madrid at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium. “I thought about what happened last season, when I tried something different,” Ancelotti said. “For this match, I didn’t try to come up with anything, I left the players in their positions and Modric played a spectacular match in midfield.” Karim Benzema and Federico Valverde scored first-half goals, and Rodrygo added another in second-half stoppage time as the defending champs won the first clásico of the season to move three points ahead of Barcelona in the league standings.