Barcelona vs Real Madrid: How El Clásico Emerged?

Barcelona and Real Madrid are arguably the biggest and the most dominant forces in Club Football history and the rivalry between these two clubs is so fierce that every time they play against each other, the game becomes nothing short of an EPIC Battle. Not just the World, the whole Universe listens to the holler.

Since the introduction of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo in their respective clubs, this rivalry has taken a mammoth form and football fans have popularized this vying as El Clasico (The Classic). Everytime Barcelona and Real Madrid are face to face, in any event, the match becomes an El Clasico.

This is much more than a game. El Clasico is a bitter dispute that has lasted decades or we can say that it an occasion when dreams come true and worst nightmares are brought to life.

The one incident that is the biggest reason behind this age-old rivalry was the transfer of Luis Figo. The player was a darling to Barcelona fans but in the year 2000, he made a controversial switch to Real Madrid, angering Barcelona fans. Whenever Real Madrid played against Barcelona, Figo was subjected to taunts from the crowd. His frustration started pouring out in his performance, further intensifying the game between the two clubs.

From thereon, every match between Barcelona and Real Madrid was treated as a war and the Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo’s personal rivalry made the matter worse. The biggest debate of the decade started with their introduction in the teams and the topic was, ‘Who is the best among them?’

Their fan’s expectations further increased the tension between the two players and now, whenever Messi and Ronaldo are at the same ground, the temperature tends to rise to the highest levels.

Barcelona vs Real Madrid is nothing short of a tournament, as the defeat in this match haunts the respective team forever. El Clasico is the biggest game in terms of attendees as more than 90,000 people come to see this meet, first hand.

The first El Clasico of the 2016-17 season takes place this weekend on Saturday, 03 December 2016 at Camp Nou. The anticipation and excitement among football fans have broken all barriers and here we are with a head to head record between the two teams.

Barcelona and Real Madrid have played 231 games against each other in different leagues, Real Madrid winning 93 and Barcelona 90. However, when we include friendlies in the tally, Barcelona takes the lead with 109 wins with Real Madrid winning 97 out of the 264.

When it comes to El Clasico, a total of 8 such matches had been played so far with Real Madrid leading the tally with 3 wins against Barcelona’s 2. Three matches ended in a draw.

The comparison becomes much difficult when we talk about Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. Both the players have definitely registered their names in the history of football and until one of them retires (we hope not to see that day soon) they will be compared with each other.

However, when it comes to scoring the maximum number of goals in El Clasico, Messi leads the tally with 21 goals and Cristiano Ronaldo is placed at a shocking third position with 16 goals. This is the only tally where a player beside them, is present in the top two, Alfredo De Stefano being at the second position.

When it’s about Barcelona vs Real Madrid, statistics are least important because in every meeting, new records, and stats tend to be made.

With the biggest combined fan base in club football, this ‘Clash’ will definitely going to shake the Earth and if you have never seen a match between Barcelona and Real Madrid, you are missing everything out.

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2 December 2016
Rohan Jaitly