Only football newbies will lay claim to oblivion about the situations surrounding LaLiga at the moment, especially their top two sides.
Barcelona and Real Madrid have given fans much to talk about in the past two decades, thanks to the fierce battles they have fought over the football throne in Spain. Real Madrid have also gone ahead to stamp their authority on the rest of Europe by picking up more intercontinental titles than other clubs in that window.
Barcelona, of course, comes second in that regard, which also stamped the authority of Spanish football as the elite of the elite in Europe and by extension, the world.
However, all of those eras have now been put under scrutiny thanks to the most recent kerfuffle involving Barcelona. Something to do with referees.
Madrid have no part in this, however, but they are involved because scrutinising eyes have descended upon them for the many successes they have enjoyed in the same time frame. There is also the small matter of both teams pushing for a Super League to change the face of European football, an endeavour which has won them more enemies than they can possibly deal with at the moment.
Still, both teams find a way to keep the world glued to their iconic clashes and the Sunday, 19 March, 2023 edition, was no different.
Hosted at the Spotify Camp Nou, home of Barcelona, both teams went at each other’s throats for the better part of two hours. Rookie vs Veteran – Xavi Hernandez vs Carlo Ancelotti was the more interesting matchup from the fixture even though both names were not seen on the field.
The rookie ended up winning thanks to an unfortunate offside for the veteran’s team and a late goal by the rookie’s team. Most impressive of all is that Barcelona came back to win an El Clasico fixture after going down first. The last time this happened in this gargantuan football game for the Catalan club was in 1989, showing their mentality under Xavi.
The captain of the winning team, Sergio Busquets, echoed this in his post match comments after the win. “These are three very important points, a plus for us, and the fans”, he said.
“We know there are 12 games left, and we have a large advantage, but we must continue along the same lines. Now there is a break for international football, and we have to recharge our batteries for what remains of the season.”
The game ended up showing that El Clasico will continue to pave the way for the best rivalries in European football no matter the depths both clubs sink to in the coming future.
