Barcelona vs. Real Madrid, 2016 El Clásico: Sergio Ramos comes up clutch with late equalizer

Real Madrid might have only tied with Barcelona in El Clasico, but it was cause for a victory photo anyway. Look at these happy, smiling players. Everyone is here and ... wait a second.

ENHANCE!

Barcelona 1-1 Real Madrid -- Final score

Luis Suárez put Barcelona on top with a powerful header.

This goal denied Barca points that they desperately needed. They looked like they’d be cutting into Madrid’s lead at the top of La Liga, but thanks to Ramos’ goal, Los Merengues remain six points clear.

Real Madrid did not bring their best to El Clásico on Saturday. Without Toni Kroos and Gareth Bale, they could hardly be expected to. But they did enough to get the result against Barcelona, as Luka Modrić and Sergio Ramos turned in spectacular performances to help their team snatch a 1-1 draw at Camp Nou.

Luis Suárez opened the scoring, but Modrić and Ramos connected for a stoppage-time equalizer to break Barca fans’ hearts.

El Clásico got off to a cagey start on Saturday, with both teams defending well. But Luis Suárez broke the deadlock in the 54th minute, and in slightly uncharacteristic fashion for Barcelona. He was well-marked on this free kick by Neymar, but he outmuscled his man and powered an excellent header into the back of the net.

That’s not exactly how Barcelona would have envisioned taking a 1-0 lead, but they all count the same.

Injuries have altered Real Madrid and Barcelona’s regular teams for El Clásico, but they’re still able to field very strong sides, centered around Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi as always.

Madrid is the team hit harder by injuries. They’re without Gareth Bale and Toni Kroos, while Casemiro is only fit enough to make the bench. They’ll be depending on Mateo Kovacic -- who spent most of his time as an advanced playmaker before arriving at the Bernabeu -- to have an excellent game defensively. There’s also quite a bit of pressure on Lucas Vázquez, who starts in Bale’s absence.

El Clásico is here, and both Barcelona and Real Madrid are ready to put on a show. Circumstances in La Liga could swing heavily depending on how this match turns out — Real Madrid have a prime opportunity to open up a huge lead at the top of the table, or Barcelona could throw the title race wide open again.

And of course, there’s always the incredible amount of star power on the pitch to consider. Cristiano Ronaldo. Lionel Messi. Karim Benzema. Neymar. Luka Modric. Luis Suarez. We could go on and on and on listing names from both teams, and when this much quality clashes on the pitch, it’s impossible to tear your eyes away. El Clásico is always a must-watch game considering how fierce the rivalry is, and this match, with so much on the line, is no exception.

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Cristiano Ronaldo is not the same player he was the last time he stepped on the pitch to play a Clásico. He has the same skills and limitations that he had on April 2, but his standing in the game has changed. His status among the all-time greats is no longer in question, even from those who bleed blaugrana.

He can’t reasonably be criticized for failing to bring his best in Clásicos ever again. Two minutes after Sergio Ramos was sent off in the last Clásico, Ronaldo came up with the game-winner. Seven weeks later in the Champions League final, he scored the winning penalty against Atlético Madrid. Shortly afterwards, Ronaldo went on to exercise his greatest footballing demon by winning Euro 2016 with Portugal, finally capturing a major honor with his country and making the tournament’s best XI. He was injured in the final, but was by far the best player on the pitch in his team’s semifinal against Wales, outshining his Real Madrid teammate Gareth Bale.

This may be a shock to younger readers, but Barcelona hasn’t always been a continent-dwarfing trophy-hoover of a football club. Indeed, in the immediate years BC — that’s Before Cruyff, a period of prehistory that ended in what we know as 1973 — Barcelona was nothing particularly special at all. Their last league title had come in 1960 thanks to the great Sándor Kocsis and the original (and best) Luis Suárez; since then, Real Madrid had dominated La Liga.

Plenty else was happening: the Camp Nou had opened, the club’s counter-cultural identity had begun to flower, and as Spain labored under the dictatorship of General Franco, the rivalry with Madrid began to acquire a sharp and inevitably political edge. But they weren’t winning many trophies.