THE HISTORY OF ELCLASSICO
Every year in the footballing world we are treated to one of the most amazing match football has to offer. Which is a contest between the two biggest football clubs in Spain and also among the biggest in the world. Barcelona and Real Madrid has the
Two highest fan base in the world and based on my research Real Madrid has 252.1 million followers while Barcelona has 250.3 million followers which both are the two highest, with Madrid leading the list.
They both have played a total of 245 official games with Madrid having won 97 just a one game lead to Barcelona's 96 and 52 draws
HOW THE RIVALRY STARTED
The first El classico was a copa del la Coronacion now known copa del Rey competition. Played in May 1902 which Barcelona won 3-1. There was not much of a rivalry between the two clubs until the 1943 semi-final copa del genaralisimo. Barcelona won the first leg 3-0. But the Madrid side left the match feeling bittered about how Barcelona won the match. A campaign began in Madrid. Barcelona player Josep Valle recalled: "The press officer at the DND and ABC newspaper wrote all sorts of scurrilous lies, really terrible things, winding up the Madrid fans like never before". So the next game was already a heated up game which Madrid won 11-1. On the day of the second leg, the Barcelona team were insulted and stones were thrown at their bus as soon as they left their hotel. Barcelona's striker Mariano Gonzalvo said of the incident, "Five minutes before the game had started, our penalty area was already full of coins." Barcelona goalkeeper Lluis Miró rarely approached his line—when he did, he was armed with stones. As Francisco Calvet told the story, "They were shouting: Reds! Separatists!... a bottle just missed Sospedra that would have killed him if it had hit him. It was all set up.
Real Madrid went 2–0 up within half an hour. The third goal brought with it a sending off for Barcelona's Benito García after he made what Calvet claimed was a "completely normal tackle". Madrid's José Llopis Corona recalled, "At which point, they got a bit demoralized," while Mur countered, "at which point, we thought: 'go on then, score as many as you want'." Madrid scored in minutes 31', 33', 35', 39', 43' and 44', as well as two goals ruled out for offside, made it 8–0. Basilo de la Morena had been caught out by the speed of the goals. In that atmosphere and with a referee who wanted to avoid any complications, it was humanly impossible to play... If the azulgranas had played badly, really badly, the scoreboard would still not have reached that astronomical figure. The point is that they did not play at all." Both clubs were fined 2,500 pesetas by the Royal Spanish Football Federation and, although Barcelona appealed, it made no difference. Piñeyro resigned in protest, complaining of "a campaign that the press has run against Barcelona for a week and which culminated in the shameful day at Chamartín". Fernando Argila, Barcelona's reserve goalkeeper from the game, said, "There was no rivalry. Not, at least, until that game.
Since then the rivalry between the both clubs has taken different dimensions ranging from transfer saga's, politics, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo's Rivalry. and a lot of others which has made El classico one of the most thrilling football game to anticipate and watch.