Wednesday night's El Clasico was far from the spectacle we've come to expect from one of football's biggest rivalries. 

Barcelona and Real Madrid played out a goalless draw at Camp Nou to stay level on points at the top of La Liga. 

It was Zinedine Zidane's men who felt most aggrieved at the result, carving out 17 chances to Barca's nine. 

Real also had two penalty shouts turned down by both the on-field officials and VAR, both of them for fouls on Raphael Varane. 

Los Blancos are so irate, in fact, that they've released a statement about it all on their website.

That said, given some of the shock results they've suffered this season, Madrid should probably be happy with a point. 

Indeed, they were spared Lionel Messi for a change as the Argentine had a relatively quiet evening, missing a great chance from just a few yards out. 

Real players were on the alert for him nonetheless, including Toni Kroos, who resorted to some rather clumsy tactics to stop the forward dribbling past him. 

The German midfielder tried to wrestle Messi to the ground but failed, before trying to pull the six-time Ballon d'Or winner's shorts down. 

It was Kroos who ended up making an a** of himself as he ended up on the ground with Messi running away from him.

That was quite possibly the highlight of the Clasico, to be fair. 

Messi has, of course, scored more goals in this fixture than any other player in history and also holds the record number of assists.

So it's no wonder the visitors were so keen to stop him. Desperate times call for desperate measures.