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La Liga: Sergio Ramos and Gerard Pique reflect on El Clasico

Image: Sergio Ramos: El Clasico joy for Real Madrid

Sergio Ramos was pleased to see Real Madrid prove that they can make Barcelona 'suffer' during a 3-1 El Clasico win.

The hosts fell behind early at Santiago Bernabeu, with Neymar opening the scoring inside four minutes.

Real were to stage a stunning fightback, though, and levelled matters on 35 minutes when Cristiano Ronaldo converted from the penalty spot.

Pepe then nodded Carlo Ancelotti’s side in front at the start of the second half, before Karim Benzema rounded off a flowing counter with a crisp finish.

Ramos believes Real were full value for the victory, with Barcelona’s watertight defence breached for the first time this season.

He said: “Normally we play on the counter-attack, especially against a team like Barcelona who are used to having the ball all the time, but today it was the opposite.

"We pushed into their half and managed to keep hold of it when we were there. I think those are the moments where they suffered the most.

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Image: Gerard Pique: Evening to forget

"We’re very happy about that. It was great work from the team and we will go home very happy at reducing the points deficit and winning the game."

Barcelona defender Gerard Pique offered no excuses at the final whistle, conceding that he did handle a Marcelo cross for the first-half penalty and that Luis Enrique’s side were made to pay the price for opening up the encounter.

He said on the spot-kick award: "I went down and couldn’t get my hand out of the way. I didn’t mean to, but it definitely touched my hand so it was a fair penalty.

"In the first-half we didn’t suffer so much because we had more control of the game and went ahead early through Neymar’s goal. Then they went 2-1 up and we started to attack.

"Obviously when you try to attack in the Bernabeu, they will hit you on the counter-attack. They are very quick and really hurt you."

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