At the start of this season, the Barcelona hierarchy had marked this fixture for a grand homecoming to the Nou Camp after almost two years of renovations.
As it is, the upgraded Nou Camp – with a 105,000 capacity that will make it the largest stadium in Europe – isn’t complete yet but when Hansi Flick’s side do eventually make the move next season, they will have little problem selling that out if they carry on like this.
With 167 goals this season, comfortably more than any other team in Europe’s top five leagues, they are undoubtedly one of the hottest tickets on the continent.
Barcelona collaborated with Travis Scott and Spotify to create a special kit for this game but frankly, this is a side whose football delivers more than enough entertainment.
Here on a gorgeous spring day high on the hill of Montjuic, overlooking this city, at the stadium which hosted the 1992 Olympic Games, Barcelona pulled off a comeback for the ages against Real Madrid and all but secured the La Liga title.
This, the 261st Clasico, will go down as one of the greats as Flick’s great entertainers responded to Kylian Mbappe’s early brace with four goals in the space of 26 devastating first half minutes through Eric Garcia, Lamine Yamal and a brace from Raphinha.
And though Mbappe completed his hat-trick in the 70th minute, Barca held on for a seismic victory on their way to what will be a 28th La Liga title.
For Carlo Ancelotti, who will be replaced by Xabi Alonso this summer, this was a fourth Clasico defeat of a season where they will go without major silverware for the first time since 2020-21.
For all that the 65-year-old has achieved at Los Blancos, each of those crushing defeats will undoubtedly leave a little sour taste on an otherwise remarkable spell at Madrid.
As for Barcelona, who had their Treble hopes dashed midweek in Italy, the double will in all likelihood be completed in the coming week if Madrid drop points to Mallorca or when Barca travel across town to face Espanyol. The advantage is seven, with three to play.
The Spanish newspapers had billed this Clasico as the ‘Mega Clasico’ with pictures of Lamine Yamal and Kylian Mbappe dominating the front pages and the back pages on Sunday.
Given Barcelona’s tougher run in with games against two of the top five to come, a Madrid victory would have cut the lead to one point. For Barca, it was a must-not lose clash but Flick’s side were never going to play for a draw and the German named an unchanged eleven from the team that fell agonisingly short in Milan..
It spoke volumes of Madrid’s troubles this season too that in the fourth Clasico of the season, Ancelotti named a fourth different line-up but this was more out of obligation rather than choice for the Italian, with his main five defenders all still injured.
Midfielder Aurelien Tchouameni and youngster Raul Asensio made up the centre of the back four while Arda Guler was given the nod up front.
Against a free-scoring Barca side who put four past them in Madrid in October and average just shy of three goals per game this season, Ancelotti could easily have gone for a more pragmatic approach but this was a must-win for Madrid and it took just five minutes for Mbappe to deliver.
The 26-year-old latched onto a poor back-pass from Pau Cubarsi and was fouled by Wojciech Szczesny in the box. From the penalty spot, Mbappe made no mistake as he went level with Robert Lewandowski in the golden boot race.
Nine minutes later, Mbappe went clear as Madrid ripped apart Barca’s renowned high line with a devastating counter after Yamal was dispossessed.
Jude Bellingham passed the ball to Vinicius Jr, who played a lovely through ball to Mbappe and the Frenchman finished in style to silence the home crowd.
Flick and his players were furious that a foul wasn’t given on Yamal but five minutes later, Barca pulled one back.
Thibaut Courtois made a good save after Gerard Martin let fly from distance and from the resulting corner, Eric Garcia headed in from Ferran Torres’ delivery.
From there, Barca never looked back and just after the hour mark, Yamal delivered a moment of brilliance picking up the ball from Torres and curling in a stunning finesse finish into the far corner.
The boy wonder celebrated like Mbappe by telling the fans to calm down and crossing his arms.
But Barca were now on the rampage and there was no calming down. Two minutes later, there was pandemonium as they took the lead through Raphinha.
Lucas Vazquez and Kylian Mbappe bumped into each other and lost the ball with Raphinha reacting quickest and finishing past Courtois.
Like Tuesday in Milan, Flick’s men had turned around a two-goal deficit. Now the task was to hold on but even with a draw maintaining a four-point lead at the summit, this is a Barca side that was never going to sit back.
Yamal played one of his trademark trivela passes to Raphinha who headed over the bar.
Less than a minute later, Madrid were given another penalty but replays showed that Frenkie de Jong hadn’t touched Mbappe and the referee was told to reverse his decision.
Keeping in touch with the chaos of the game, Barca went up the other end and doubled their lead with Torres getting his third assist of the half.
Vasquez, the Madrid skipper, was caught on the ball by the former Manchester City man, who played it into the path of Raphinha and the Brazilian made no mistake to score his 34th goal of the season.
There was still time for Mbappe to score again before the break but his goal was ruled out for offside.
When Alejandro José Hernández Hernández blew the half-time whistle, there was almost a sense of buzzkill around the ground.
Ancelotti sent on Luka Modric and Brahim Diaz in place of Dani Ceballos and Guler at the break but it was Barca who looked more likely to score.
Raphinha squared to Yamal, who finished from close range but the offside flag was raised but in the 70th minute, Madrid hit again on the counter.
Vinicius Jr picked out Mbappe again, who slotted home for his 39th goal of the season.
Barca responded with Yamal finding Raphinha at the near post but somehow, he lost his footing and blazed over from close range.
In the 80th minute, Barca thought they had a penalty when the ball hit the arm of Tchouameni in the box and though the referee was advised to check the screens, he stuck with his initial decision of no penalty, much to the fury of the home support.
Ancelotti threw on Endrick and Victor Muniz in the hope of a late equaliser and it was the latter who blew the chance to be a hero as he fired wide when he was clear on goal a minute after coming on.
There was time for more drama too as Szczesny made a brilliant stop to deny Mbappe and from the corner that followed, Mbappe turned the ball in but he was offside.
Fermin Lopez then scored a belter on his birthday as the Barca players and fans went wild, only for the goal to be disallowed as the ball hit his hand in the build-up. Not that it mattered though as Barca held on.
