When the world stops for 90 minutes plus the stoppage time!! Its time to witness the best football.

Every sport has rivalries some big, some small, but there are some which are always nerve wrecking. Be it India vs Pakistan in Cricket or Roger Federer vs Rafael Nadal in Tennis. Football the game which is probably watched by 90% of the people on planet earth can easily be termed as the most popular sport among the rest and just like any other sport this sport also has some fierce rivals, some examples are Manchester united vs Liverpool in the EPL, AC Milan vs Inter in Serie A, Bayern Munchen vs Borussia Dortmund in Bundesliga. But the most iconic fixture is hosted by the Spanish league “La Liga” where two Spanish giants and probably the strongest teams in the world right now Barcelona and Real Madrid take on each other for 90 minutes, these 90 odd minutes are so much thrilling that people all around the world watch it. They say the world stops for these 90 minutes.

The standard of football is so high that you cannot blink your eye because you might miss a moment of magic created by either of the team. This thrilling encounter is known as “El Clasico” or “The Classic” in English. It is not just a rivalry between the 22 players but a rivalry between the support staff of the two teams, between two of the biggest cities in Spain Barcelona and Madrid, between two political parties with Barcelona representing the Catalan Nationalism and Madrid representing the Spanish nationalism and most importantly between the millions of fans both the teams have all around the world.

The Rivalry started in the 1930’s when the two political parties formed two clubs which in the future were going to be two of the most formidable clubs of the world.

Real Madrid is known for its pace and its counter attacks while Barcelona is known for its one touch passing and possession maintenance. The two have clubs have adapted to their respective style of play from quite some time now and still play with the same style.

Both the clubs have are immensely rich and have billions of dollars in their account and which is the reason why they both have beautiful fortresses where they are the most dangerous.
The home ground of Real Madrid is called the Santiago Bernabéu, one of the most iconic football stadiums in the world opened in 1945 has a mammoth 85454 crowd capacity.

Barcelona on the other hand call their home ground as the Camp Nou opened in 1957 is again one of the most iconic football stadiums of the world and the biggest stadium in Europe and has the crowd capacity of 99354.

But for all these epic encounters to have taken place there have been numerous players who have played their heart out on a number of occasions for their respective teams. Both the teams have produced some iconic players. Real Madrid have gives us players like Alfredo De Stefano, Zinedine Zidane, Roberto Carlos, David Beckham, Cristiano Ronaldo and more, where as Barcelona have also given us players like Johan Cryuff, Ronaldhinho, Puyol, Xavi, Iniesta, Lionel Messi and many more.

In between all these rivalries there is the rivalry of the probably two of the greatest players to have played the game and they are Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, both great in their own rights one is a goal scoring machine and the other creates magic in almost everything he does on the ground.

Just the fact that nobody else has won the Player of the year award in the last 9 years other than these two shows how great these players and proves they are the best of their generation. Messi has won it 5 times where has Ronaldo has won it 4 times. They have scored hundreds of goals for their club and country and are still going at the same pace scoring in almost every match. When these two teams go head to head all the focus is on these two players as they are the game changers who can take away the game at any point in the 90 minutes.

Both the teams have two of the most influential youth academies in the world, La Fabrica of Real Madrid and La Masia of Barcelona. Hundreds of players have emerged from these teams and now play in some of the biggest teams in the world, La Fabrica is a flamboyant academy where players ranging from 8 years to 19 years graduate to play for big clubs, some of their alumini’s are Raul, Iker Casillas, Alavaro Arbeloa, Juan Mata.

La Masia also is another iconic youth academy who is the youth academy which also trains youth of Spain to play their style of football, All three finalists of 2010 Ballon d’Or were graduates of La Masia and they were Andres Iniesta, Xavi and Lionel Messi. Other notable alumini’s are Puyol, Pique, Pep Guardiola and many more.
To sum up, these 90 minutes of madness that happens mostly once every year is one of the most eye catching fixture in all of sports and entertainment. 90 minutes where people all over the world leave aside all their work to watch sheer excellence of Football produced by these two teams.

Sit back and enjoy the 90 minutes, plus the stoppage time of exuberance, speed, skill, pace, rivalry of the highest quality in the world of football..!!!