Without doubt, the two biggest club sides in world football is Real Madrid v. Barcelona and have a rivalry that is unmatched in terms of intensity and quality of football.
The two clubs boast of many of the world’s greatest players, and hundreds of millions of fans pay big to watch the El Clasico.
The El Clasico has witnessed some moments of magic, upsets, intrigues and entertainment that leaves an unforgotten moments for fans to remember.
Let’s look back through the most shocking games in the history of the greatest football rivalry.
Real Madrid 11-1 Barcelona, June 13, 1943
In the two-legged semi-final of the Copa del Rey, Barcelona had taken a 3-0 lead in the first game at the Camp Nou. Before that game, there was not a great rivalry between the two teams, but what followed made sure there would always remain one.
The details of what took place vary from one account to another, but it is clear that Barcelona faced a more than hostile environment in the capital.
The upshot was a massacre on the pitch, with Barcelona hammered 11-1 by Real, but it is not a game remembered too often in Madrid, despite being their record ever victory.
Real Madrid 5-0 Barcelona, October 25, 1953
Alfredo di Stefano is remembered as one of the finest players in the history of Real Madrid, but things almost turned out very differently – he was close to signing for Barcelona before he joined Los Blancos.
Di Stefano then rubbed it in by scoring four times in a 5-0 win, just a couple of weeks after joining Real, before firing them to the title that season, and five consecutive European Cups in the between 1956 and 1960.
Real Madrid 0-5 Barcelona, February 17, 1974
The Di Stefano game in reverse, as this time it was Barcelona who won the big-money battle to sign a super-star, Johan Cruyff. The Dutchman angered Madrid, and delighted his new fans, by saying he could never join a club ‘associated with France’.
While his impact in El Clasico was not quite as immediate as Di Stefano – he had to wait a few months to make his mark – he scored one and created three more in the 5-0 thrashing.
The result helped Barca to their first title in 14 years, and Cruyff, as a player, manager and director, has presided over the Catalan club’s evolution into a footballing powerhouse once more.
Barcelona 5-0 Real Madrid, January 8, 1994
With Cruyff now the manager, the Barcelona side of the early 1990s was a spectacular one, with the likes of Pep Guardiola, Hristo Stoichkov, Ronald Koeman and Romario.
It was the last of these who stole the show in January 1994, displaying pace, power and superb finishing to bag a hat-trick, while Koeman added a stunning free kick of his own.
Barca would won the title for the fourth year in a row, and reach their second European Cup final out of three – the only time in the post-war era they have really dominated their bitter rivals, before the current generation.
Barcelona 0-0 Real Madrid, November 23, 2002
If the Di Stefano transfer built the rivalry, and Cruyff’s intensified it, Luis Figo’s move – directly from Barcelona to Real Madrid for a world record fee – has come to typify it.
Figo was one of the best players in the world, a Barcelona icon, when Real made him the first of their Galactico project – and the Barca fans never forgave their former hero.
On his second return to the Nou Camp he was showered with abuse and objects every time he tried to take a corner, eventually resulting in a delay of almost 20 minutes. As the players left the pitch, it was spotted that one of the objects thrown was a pig’s head – still the image of the rivalry between the two clubs.
For all the hatred between the two clubs, there are still moments in games between the two that rise above a rivalry – and this was one of them.
Barcelona 3-3 Real Madrid, March 10, 2007
Lionel Messi was already a star – although he had missed the previous year’s Champions League final through injury, he was a key player for Barcelona.
But, at 19, he was still raw, still unproven to an extent, still the sideshow to Ronaldinho’s main event at the Nou Camp – until this game.
Messi fully announced himself as a world beater with a hat-trick against Real, equalising three times after Real had taken the lead, as 10-man Barca earned a valuable point.
It was his first treble for the club, the first by anyone in a Clasico for 12 years – and although the star had already been born, this was the point at which much of the rest of the world really noticed.
Barcelona 5-0 Real Madrid, November 29, 2010
Under new manager Jose Mourinho, Real Madrid had reached late November without losing a single game.
Then Barcelona arrived to end that run in the most brutal fashion.
Goals from Xavi and Pedro had the home side two up inside 18 minutes, and the second half was a procession of beautiful football, with Messi, Xavi and Andres Iniesta orchestrating and David Villa finishing.
By the time the game ended, with Sergio Ramos dismissed late on for a nasty tackle on Messi, Mourinho looked thoroughly embarrassed.
Barcelona 3-2 Real Madrid, August 17 2011
If the previous season’s meetings had been bad-tempered, this was downright violent, as the Spanish Super Cup – a curtain-raiser for the new season – ended in a brawl.
With Barca leading 5-4 on aggregate, Marcelo earned a second yellow card with a scything tackle on Cesc Fabregas right in front of the benches. Carnage ensued, with both goalkeepers in the melee on the halfway line, as well as almost everyone else!
Mourinho, disgracefully, poked his finger into the eye of Barca assistant Tito Vilanova, for which he was given a two-match ban, and the game ended with two more red cards shown to David Villa and Mesut Ozil, both of whom were not even on the pitch!
Barcelona 1-2 Real Madrid, April 16, 2014
While the rivalry has become a battle between Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo in recent years, the emergence of Gareth Bale and Neymar could shift that contest in the near future, particularly if Ronaldo were to leave Spain.
That makes the Copa del Rey final of 2014 all the more significant, as Bale used the biggest occasion, and the absence of Ronaldo, to truly announce himself as a Real star.
His brilliant goal, five minutes from time, won the trophy for Madrid, and the manner of it, with his complete annihilation of Marc Bartra, endeared him to his new fans.
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