BARCELONA — Kylian Mbappe struck twice to earn Jose Mourinho’s Real Madrid a 2-1 Clasico victory over La Liga leaders Barcelona on Sunday at Camp Nou, cutting the gap to three points.
French superstar Mbappe opened the scoring before the interval and then slotted home late on to inflict Barca’s first domestic defeat of the campaign after Raphinha had equalised for the champions.
Real Madrid remain third, behind Atletico Madrid and Hansi Flick’s Barca, who had won their first nine games before a chastening week.
The Catalans suffered a second straight defeat after losing on Tuesday against Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League.
Mourinho was delighted with his team’s display in his first Clasico back at the helm of Madrid.
“My team had an extraordinary game, very organized, good concentration, with courage to play out from the back against a team that presses you a lot,” Mourinho told reporters.
“We had chances for the second goal ... obviously Barca had a strong reaction but we were calm and organized and at 1-1 we never lost our tranquility.”
Barca had won six of the seven previous Clasicos since Flick arrived but were surprisingly subdued against Mourinho’s side.
“In general we didn’t have a great game, in the first half we weren’t ourselves, there were a lot of things we could have done better,” Barcelona midfielder Pedri told DAZN.
“We wanted to win the Clasico in front of our fans, but the season is very long ... a league is not won here.”
Los Blancos, without suspended winger Vinicius Junior, won their fifth straight game across all competitions and are finding their footing under veteran Portuguese coach Mourinho.
