Costa News Spain Breaking News | English News in Spain.
WHATEVER you do, don’t have any emergencies – domestic or otherwise this afternoon, Sunday, May 11 at 4.15pm.
There will be no plumbers, car mechanics or taxi drivers available anywhere, because Barcelona Football Club is hosting Real Madrid at the Camp Nou in the “clásico”.
Whenever Madrid and Barcelona meet, it’s a clásico, but this match promises to be the most explosive of all time.
British people tend to be loyal to the successful, big teams. You’ll see football fans in Bristol who are Arsenal or Liverpool supporters.
Local loyalty still exists. Liverpool fans may still be hankering after Bristol City this season (but not for the Rovers).
Spain is different.
Here, there are two giant clubs, and they dominate everything – and, of course, they detest each other – Real Madrid and Barcelona.
Whether you find yourself in Sabanillas or Santiago de Compostella, everyone will be an aficionado of “Barça” or “Los Meringues”. Other options do not exist.
Each time these two clubs meet it feels as if they are in a battle for their lives. It’s a lot more intense this year than usual.
Barcelona beat their hosts by 4-0 when they met last October in Madrid for “La Liga”, the Spanish League Championship.
The madrileños have a major score to settle.
The Copa del Rey, which was held in Spain two years ago, is still fresh on everyone’s mind. Barcelona won the “King’s Cup”, Spain’s equivalent to the FA Cup, 3-2 in overtime two weeks ago.
The Spanish League Championship is likely to be decided in this game, and that’s the third most important thing.
Barcelona currently leads the table. Barcelona has played 34 matches and scored 79 points. Madrid is second with 75 points. Each team still has four matches left.
The remaining fixtures of the two teams are as follows.
Barcelona plays Espanyol at home on Thursday, Villareal away on Sunday 18 and Athletic away on the 25th.
Real Madrid hosts Mallorca at home on the 14th of March, travels to Sevilla on the 18th of April and finishes against Real Sociedad at Bernabeu on Sunday 25th.
Barça will do well to pick up 5 points from those other three games. Madrid, however, should be able to expect at least 7.
The championship could be decided by the last minute. Real Madrid, realistically, need to win the clásico. Barcelona have a significantly better goal difference.
You can expect to hear loud cheers of joy or pain at each throw-in if you are planning on being in a pub next Sunday afternoon. The Sunday evening will be filled with a lot of car horn-tooting.
Welcome to Spain
