Don't be fooled by the red card - Casemiro put in a top notch performance against Barcelona.

The Real Madrid midfielder was one of the main reasons Lionel Messi's Clasico drought stretched to its seventh game. 

Casemiro won all of his aerial duels and made more interceptions and tackles than any other player on the pitch. 

A fine display was curtailed early when the Brazilian made two rash challenges within a couple of minutes of each other, earning him his marching orders from Jesus Gil Manzano. 

The referee seems to be the man of the moment, largely because Ronald Koeman and Gerard Pique were furious at his decision not to award Martin Brathwaite a penalty. 

However, one incident which seemed to go under the radar was a confrontation between Manzano and Casemiro himself. 

In footage which has been circulated on social media, the 29-year-old was engaged in a confrontation with Ilaix Moriba. 

As the match official tried to intervene, Casemiro appears to slap his hand away. 

There are unlikely to be ramifications now, but it's unacceptable behaviour towards the referee.

Casemiro wasn't done there. 

After being sent off late in the game, he was also seen laughing towards the Barcelona bench. 

Koeman was busy protesting, while Casemiro looked over and was seen grinning. Some fans believed he was deliberately trying to wind up the Blaugrana manager towards the end of the footage:

p1f304rrtuotb1md46ajfp71vlb.jpg
p1f304sa7t1erepov1ork10pa1j8ed.jpg

This was El Clasico at its dramatic best. 

Barcelona were absolutely incensed by the evening's events and according to one report, Koeman and Pique also confronted Manzano in the tunnel afterwards, with Real players having to intervene. 

Zinedine Zidane's men clearly enjoyed taking the moral high ground post-match. 

Still, Casemiro's antics shouldn't detract from what's been a brilliant run of form for him. He starred in a midfield trio alongside Toni Kroos and Luka Modric in the Champions League quarter-final first-leg win over Liverpool before silencing Messi on Saturday. Not a bad week.