Real Madrid wallop Barcelona in first Clasico of season

A lightning first ten minutes saw Valverde put Real ahead after five before Fati struck the equaliser just three minutes later.

Karim Benzema charged through the Barca midfield unchallenged, slid a perfectly weighted through ball behind Gerard Pique and Valverde took it in his stride before lashing it past Neto into the top left corner.

Barca were level when Messi dinked an exquisite ball to Jordi Alba along the left touchline, he raced down the channel and fizzed the ball across the box for Fati to stab home from barely six yards.

The game settled down somewhat with Messi getting on the ball in deep positions and trying to make things happen.

Messihad a shout for a penalty just before the half hour mark after another risky slide challenge from Casemiro but the Brazilian just got a toe to the ball and it was waved away as Messi crashed to the ground. Again.

Lenglet was shown yellow for a full-blooded challenge on Valverde soon after.

And Real had the upper hand for the remainder of the first-half with Marco Asensio involved in some particularly skillful passages of play.

Nacho was booked for a challenge on Philippe Coutinho as the ex-Liverpool man cut in from the flank with just eight minutes of the first 45 left.

And unable to shake a knock, he was replaced by Lucas Vazquez just five minutes later.

After the early flurry of activity, both teams defended well and were limited to half chances with neither keeper tested before the break as the teams went in at 1-1.

This Classico failed to live up to its billing with few fireworks normally associated with such encounter.