Barcelona moved 12 points clear at the top of La Liga on Sunday after beating Real Madrid 2-1  in the El Clásico, thanks to Ivory Coast’s Franck Kessie’s late goal.

Real Madrid took the lead early on when Ronald Araujo turned a cross from Vinicius junior into his own net.

But Barcelona responded at the stroke of half-time through Sergio Roberto Martinez before Kessie scored the winner in additional time to become the third African to score in the El Clásico.

The victory meant that the Catalan giants took another massive step towards winning the Liga title with their 100th  El Clásico win.

However, Barcelona manager Xavi Hernandez is not yet convinced that his team are the champions in waiting after their third consecutive victory over Los Blancos.

“We do not feel like champions, but it is a very important step; we have won points. In fact, we have only lost ten games in the whole season, and that is not by chance,” Xavi said during the postmatch interview on Sunday. “We have been very solid in defense, and on top of that tonight, we have been very good in attack.”

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Xavi believes that the El Clásico victory will give his side a lot of morale and confidence going forward.

“It is a very important and deserved victory; we deserved this result that reflects what the game was because we were far superior to Real Madrid,” he said.

“We dominated; we had more chances and were better than them. It is a victory that gives us a lot of morale and a lot of confidence,” he said.

With only 12 games remaining, the Catalans are now looking to win their 27th league title.