Lionel Messi has experienced the euphoric highs of winning El Clasico on many previous occasions, but Sunday’s 3-2 victory at the Santiago Bernabeu must have tasted particularly sweet for the Barcelona maestro.

Following recent results, and without the suspended Neymar, few people believed Barça could win this Clasico, which seems a rather bizarre thing to say when you consider Luis Enrique still had the likes of Luis Suarez, Andres Iniesta, Sergio Busquets and, of course, Messi to call on.

Things looked bleak for the Catalan giants when Casemiro broke the deadlock in the 28th minute, but when Messi is in the mood, Barcelona are nigh-on impossible to stop.

The five-time Ballon d’Or winner equalised five minutes later with a wonderful goal before Ivan Rakitic put the visitors ahead with a rocket in the 73rd minute.

James Rodriguez appeared to have secured a point for Los Blancos with his 85th-minute equaliser, scored shortly after Sergio Ramos’s red card, but Messi popped up in the second minute of stoppage time to secure a famous victory.

Neymar wasn’t inside the stadium on Sunday night. The Brazilian forward was watching the game with friends at home and uploaded a couple of celebratory videos to his social media feeds following Barça’s dramatic victory.

Messi ensured Neymar was part of the celebrations

However, Messi ensured that his teammate and friend was part of the dressing room celebrations thanks to the wonders of modern technology.

In Barcelona’s celebratory post-match photo, Messi can be seen holding up his phone.

Who was on the phone? You guessed it: Neymar.

The 25-year-old was live on FaceTime and, thanks to Messi, found a way to join in the dressing room celebrations.

Barcelona hoped Neymar would be available for Clasico

Barcelona had hoped to have Neymar available for the Clasico after lodging an appeal to Spain’s Court of Arbitration for Sport [TAD] against his three-match ban.

TAD had planned to call an extraordinary meeting to discuss and resolve the case on Saturday but failed to do so.

Barcelona subsequently opted against calling Neymar up for the match on Sunday morning.

But even without Neymar, Barça are capable of beating any team on the planet once Messi gets going.

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