Sunday's El Clasico well and truly belonged to Lionel Messi.

Barcelona needed victory at the Bernabeu to keep pace with Real Madrid in the title race and thanks to their Argentine magician, they did just that.

Casemiro broke the deadlock with a 28th-minute tap-in but five minutes later, the away side were level through a Messi special.

Ivan Rakitic's ball found the 29-year-old, who danced past Luka Modric and Dani Carvajal before beating Keylor Navas with a low drive.

Rakitic then gave Barcelona the lead with a 20-yard screamer, only for 10-man Los Blancos - who had Sergio Ramos sent off - to equalise five minutes from time.

And then it happened. With seconds remaining, Sergi Roberto burst into Real's half and passed to Andre Gomez, who found Jordi Alba on the overlap to eventually tee up Messi for the winner.

In one sweep of his magical left foot, the Argentina international curled the ball past Navas and into the bottom-left corner for his second of the game. Cue hysteria.

Messi's celebration was just as emphatic. Upon scoring, he ran over to a section of Real fans, took off his shirt and held it up to them showing 'Messi 10'. Iconic.

However, while Messi stole the limelight for what was his 500th goal for Barcelona, Luis Suarez deserved a lot of credit for the vital role he played.

When Alba's cross found Messi in the box, Suarez initially created a gap for his teammate to shoot by moving to his right and then stopped Nacho from trying to block it.

And sure enough, Messi picked his spot to secure a memorable El Clasico victory. Check out the video below to see the goal and how Suarez played his part.

Hardly anyone noticed Suarez's clever piece of play, but if he hadn't blocked off Nacho, Messi might not have scored.

The Uruguayan striker took to social media after the game to once again hail Messi as the best player in history (see below).

Andres Iniesta also lauded the Argentine in a post-match interview by saying it's an "honour and blessing" to be playing with him at Barcelona.

"I think the great thing about Leo is that he continues to surprise," he said, per the Mirror. "After so many years he is still decisive. It is an honour and a blessing for the club to have him."