Twitter explodes as Cristiano Ronaldo scores before getting sent off in a frantic El Clasico

The Supercopa de Espana clash between Barcelona and Real Madrid was the perfect curtain-raiser for the Spanish footballing season that anyone could have hoped for. After a slow start in the first half, the game sprang to life in the second half, with tackles flying in, screamers being scored and cards being handed out for fun.

It all started with Gerard Pique - who is not having the best time of his life - as he diverted a fizzing cross from Marcelo past his own goalkeeper to open the scoring for his sworn enemies. But it was only the beginning as soon after Luis Suarez won his side a penalty after going down inside the box under minimal contact from Keylor Navas. Lionel Messi stepped up promptly and placed the ball into the bottom left corner to pull his side on level terms.

The game reached its crescendo in the next 5 minutes as Cristiano Ronaldo first scored an absolute screamer to put Zinedine Zidane's side ahead, before mimicking Lionel Messi's iconic 'shirt' celebration at the Santiago Bernabeu earlier in the year. The Portuguese went into the book for taking off his shirt and was sent off less than a minute later after going down inside the box under pressure from Samuel Umtiti, an act deemed by the referee to be a Dive.

Just as Barcelona looked to be set to capitalize on their numerical advantage, Marco Asensio stepped up and scored one of the goals of the season as he beat Ter Stegen with a pinpoint shot into the German's near post from the edge of the box.

Ernesto Valverde's men will now have to overturn this deficit in the second leg, in 3 days time, if they are to start the season on a high.

Twitter, as you would expect, didn't hold back after another frantic El Clasico and here are the best tweets:

The most talked about celebration in the world right now...

The different sides of the story...

Here's how it started...

A tale of two dives...

But what if Messi decides to do it in the second leg?

The truth...

Cristiano Ronaldo, you absolute legend!

Marco Asensio, you gem!

Barcelona are doomed...

What actually happened...

Barcelona fans will be hoping, Él no se queda