Cristiano Ronaldo Watches from the Stands as Real Madrid Win 1st El Clasico Since His Departure

Real Madrid had not won a single El Clasico since Cristiano Ronaldo's departure from the club to Juventus in July 2018. On Sunday, when they did, the Portuguese was watching from the stands.

Ronaldo was in attendance at the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu as Real Madrid took the reigns of La Liga 2019-20 title race back in their hands with a 2-0 win over FC Barcelona. This is Real's first win in six Clasico's since Ronaldo left the club - they lost three and drew two before this.

Vinicius Jr and Mariano Diaz made it to the scoresheet as Barcelona failed to find the back of the net despite a plethora of chances.

It was a goalkeeper's Clasico in the first half where Real Madrid's Thibaut Courtois and Barcelona's Marc Ter Stegen pulled off some brilliant saves to keep the scoreline level.

Barcelona had a number of chances to force the issue in the first half but failed to capitalise on it. In the second half, Real Madrid's defence did excellently well to thwart any danger from the Catalan club and scored two good goals to take the big win.

So pumped up were Real that in the 75th minute when Lionel Messi was almost through on goal, Marcelo made a brilliant tackle and Raphael Varane cleared the ball to Courtois, the Brazilian screamed and celebrated like he had won the match for Real.

Messi has failed to score in an El Clasico ever since Ronaldo left Real Madrid and that woeful streak continued on Sunday as Messi left the pitch immediately after the final whistle.

Vinicius, who scored Real's first of the night in the 71st minute, celebrated like his idol Ronaldo as the man himself watched from the stands. The 19-year-old even took to Instagram and posted a photo of himself celebrating and called the Portuguese his 'idol'.

Here is how Ronaldo celebrated Vinicius' goal:

Ronaldo travelled to Madrid for the El Clasico after Juventus' match against Inter Milan in Serie A was postponed over coronavirus fears in Italy.