Barcelona comfortably beat Real Madrid 3-1 in women's Clasico

Barcelona Femeni dominated the Clasico against Real Madrid Femenino as they ran out resounding 3-1 winners on Sunday, with Lieke Martens scoring two and setting up another at the Alfredo Di Stéfano Stadium.

Martens opened the scoring in the eighth minute, nodding in on the line after Real goalkeeper Misa Rodriguez had made two reflex saves.

Ten minutes later, Irene Paredes sent a towering header from Martens' corner to make it 2-0 and give the visitors a commanding lead in Madrid.

The visitors further established their dominance in the game when Martens grabbed her second goal, latching onto Mariona Caldentey's brilliant through ball and curling into the far corner.

Kosovare Asllani pulled one back just after half time for Real, converting Lucia Rodriguez's cross at the back post.

The win takes Barça's lead in the Primera Division up to six points, with their nearest competitors being Real Sociedad in second. Real, however, are down in ninth, having taken a disappointing 17 points from their opening 13 games.

The two Spanish sides finished in the top two spots last season, with Barça winning the league by racking up 99 points, 25 ahead of Real.

Both have secured qualification to the quarter finals of the Women's Champions League. Barça's form in that competition has been particularly impressive, winning all of their five Group C games, scoring 19 goals and conceding none in the process.

While they were soundly beaten in both of their games against Paris Saint-Germain, victories against Ukrainian side Zhytlobud-1 Kharkiv and Icelandic outfit Breiðablik have seen Real finish as runners up to PSG in Group B.

Real Femenino are yet to beat Barça since their merger with Los Blancos. Barça beat the previous iteration of the side - then known as CD Tacon - 9-1 and 6-0 during the 2019/20 season, before completing another emphatic double with 4-0 and 4-1 victories.

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