The Clasico is the biggest soccer game in the entire world. It is probably even bigger than the World Cup final in many respects.

And this latest edition on Sunday, which saw Barcelona pull away with a 2-1 win, lived up to the hype.

It was a match with huge implications. Barcelona, at home, held a one point lead in the standings. A win and the lead moves to four points. A loss and Real Madrid overtakes the lead in the Spanish League. A tie and this battle becomes tenser down the stretch.

Barcelona now has that four-point lead and should cruise to Spain's crown, leaving its rival hurt and bruised.

Here are some takeaways from the game:

A Tale of Two Halves

Barcelona came out with the early jump, but after scoring a goal in the 19th minute, the home side looked overwhelmed. Real Madrid battled through and found space and time to create chances. Eventually, the goal came on a magnificent counter that was started and finished by none other than Cristiano Ronaldo. And then more chances came. Sometimes, Claudio Bravo was required to make a huge save. At others, the chances were blown by Madrid's players.

Madrid looked confident in the second half, but it was Barcelona that would eventually take the lead and seize control. The final moments of the game looked more likely to see a third Barcelona goal than an equalizer from Madrid.

A Tale of Two Keepers

This battle was arguably won on the performance of the two keepers. Barcelona's Claudio Bravo was seen as the man who provided his club with more security, while his rival Iker Casillas was the one with questions to answer. The story did not change after this episode. Casillas did nothing on the first Barcelona goal, reacting late to Jeremy Mathieu's header and proving that his agility, his finest asset, is not with him any longer. The second goal was worse as he overcommitted to Luis Suarez's shot without having needed to. Suarez was still far from the goal when he took his shot, and if Casillas had stayed put, the Uruguayan would have had to cut in toward goal and would have faced stiffer opposition from Sergio Ramos and Pepe. But alas, he made a poor mistake, and it cost the team. Late in the game, as was also the case in the Schalke 04 loss, Casillas made some fine stops, but it was too little too late. And unlike that Champions League game where the saves wound up saving his squad, these saves meant nothing.

On the other end, Claudio Bravo made a plethora of saves that wound up meaning a ton. He stopped a long range laser from Cristiano Ronaldo. He stopped Gareth Bale and Karim Benzema from up close. He simply was the main reason this game remained 1-1 after 45 and wound up in Barcelona's favor at the finish line.

A Tale of Two Sides' Major Transfers

Heading into the game, the main story for Madrid was whether Gareth Bale would help decide the match. At the top of his game, the Welshman is virtually unstoppable. And he looked that way in the first half, scoring a goal that was unfairly taken away from him. But as the match wore on, he disappeared, and in the second 45 minutes, it was essentially 11 Barcelona players against 10 Madrid players with Bale rarely making an appearance.

On the other side of the pitch, Luis Suarez, Neymar and Jeremy Mathieu were huge players for Barcelona and tipped the balance in favor of the Catalans.

Defense, Defense, Defense

The reality of the situation is that Real Madrid's defense was a disaster and Barcelona's hung on for the win. Madrid gave up a goal on a set piece, something that has troubled the team the entire season and should be addressed at this point in time. Moreover, by the end of the game it was too easy for Barcelona to create scoring chances and lanes toward goal.

At the other end, Madrid exploited Barcelona on the counter and had a number of chances at goal, but the Barcelona side also packed its box when necessary, managing that extra edge to pull off the win.