‘El Clasico’ is the name given to the games between Spanish giants Real Madrid and Barcelona. Real Madrid and Barcelona are arguably two of the biggest clubs in the world throughout history. They have one of the fiercest rivalries worldwide, and each game between them seems like a war. The two teams have met 254 times in competitive games, with Real Madrid winning 102 games, Barcelona winning 100 games, and 52 games ending in a draw. Today, we go through some of the most Iconic El Clasico games ever.
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1. Real Madrid 3-4 Barcelona (2014)
This 2014 game between Real Madrid and Barcelona is arguably the best El Clasico game of all time. Barcelona started the game strong and went 1-0 up in the 7th minute of the game thanks to a goal by Andres Iniesta. Real Madrid took little time to retaliate as Karim Benzema guided a header past Victor Valdes in the 19th minute to level the score. Soon after levelling the scores, Karim Benzema scored again to give Real Madrid the lead in the 23rd minute.
Karim Benzema had a lot of chances to complete his hat trick throughout the match but could not capitalize on these chances. Just before half-time, Lionel Messi scored for Barcelona. The second half was filled with penalties for both teams. Real Madrid received a penalty for a foul on Cristiano Ronaldo in the 55th minute. Cristiano Ronaldo stepped up to take the penalty and scored to give Real Madrid the lead again. This lead, however, was cut short when Barcelona was awarded a penalty in the 64th minute.
Sergio Ramos was deemed to have stopped a goal scoring opportunity, and he was sent off with Barcelona getting a penalty. Lionel Messi stepped up to take the penalty for Barcelona and scored without any problems to make the score 3-3. If there weren’t enough penalties, Barcelona was awarded another penalty in the 84th minute of the game. Lionel Messi stepped up for Barcelona once more and scored the penalty to complete his hat trick. This was the last goal in this thrilling game, and Barcelona won 4-2.
2. Barcelona 2-3 Real Madrid (2022)
Real Madrid and Barcelona met in the 2022 Supercopa de Espana semi-finals. The teams had an exhilarating game to decide which one of them advanced to the Supercopa de Espana final. Real Madrid scored first in the game. In the 25th minute, Vinicius Junior put Real Madrid ahead with a neat finish. Barcelona, however, found an equalizer through Luuk de Jong in the first half itself.
Luuk de Jong saw luck smiling upon him as a clearance from Eder Militao hit de Jong and went in. The ball managed to go into the Real Madrid goal, making things level at half-time. Real Madrid managed to retake the lead, this time through Karim Benzema. It looked like this would prove to be the winner, but Barcelona had another goal in them. In the 83rd minute, Ansu Fati managed to score. He got on the end of a cross to head the ball into the back of the net. This made the score 2-2. Just a couple of minutes after Ansu Fati’s goal, Ousmane Dembele got the opportunity to score for Barcelona again, but he could not capitalize on this.
The game was forced into extra time with the score level at 2-2. In the 98th minute, Real Madrid made a successful counter-attack, which saw Federico Valverde score the 5th and final goal of the game. Real Madrid went on to win the game 3-2 and book their place in the final of the Supercopa de Espana.
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3. Barcelona 5-0 Real Madrid (2010)
This El Clasico game is probably Real Madrid’s most humiliating loss ever. Real Madrid lost 5-0 to Barcelona in 2010. Barcelona outplayed Real Madrid in every aspect of the game. Barcelona managed to get an early lead through Xavi in the 9th minute of the game. After this goal, Real Madrid went on the offensive, having a barrage of attacks on the Barcelona goal, but it was Barcelona who scored next. In the 17th minute of the game, Pedro scored for Barcelona to give them a 2-0 lead.
The score stayed 2-0 till halftime. Even though Barcelona was exceptional in the first half, they seemed to have come out even more determined. David Villa scored two quick goals in the 54th and 56th minute of the game. This made the score 4-0 in favour of Barcelona. To finish the humiliation, Barcelona academy player Jeffren Suarez came off the bench to score the 5th and final goal.
After the 5th goal in the 88th minute, a fight broke out between the players. Tempers flared among the Real Madrid players on the wrong side of a 5-0 score line. In this commotion, Sergio Ramos was sent off. The match ended with the score line of Barcelona 5-0 Real Madrid.
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4. Real Madrid 4-2 Barcelona (2005)
The 2005 El Clasico match was full of superstars. The game featured the likes of Ilker Casillas, Roberto Carlos, Zinedine Zidane, David Beckham, Michael Owen, Raul, Ronaldo (R9), Luis Figo, Victor Valdes, Carles Puyol, Xavi, Andres Iniesta, Ronaldinho, and Samuel Eto’o. Real Madrid opened the scoring early as Zidane met a cross put into the box. This goal gave Real Madrid the lead in the 6th minute.
In the 19th minute, David Beckham whipped a freekick perfectly onto the head of Ronaldo (R9), who guided the ball past Valdes to give Real Madrid a 2-0 lead. Not too long later, Samuel Eto’o scored for Barcelona, giving them a way back into the game. In the dying moments of the first half, a Roberto Carlos cross managed to find Raul in Barcelona’s box, and he scored for Madrid, giving them a 3-1 lead going into halftime. In the 65th minute, an over-the-top long ball saw Michael Owen get through on goal, and he expertly finished off the chance to make it 4-1 to Real Madrid.
Ronaldinho managed to give Barcelona fans a glimmer of home when he managed to score directly from a freekick to make the score 4-2 in the 73rd minute of the game, but it was not to be for Barcelona, and they went on to lose the game 4-2.
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5. Real Madrid 2-3 Barcelona (2017)
The game between Real Madrid and Barcelona in 2017 was full of craziness from start to end. Real Madrid started at the front foot, attacking from the 1st minute. They seemed to be overpowering Barcelona with their offensive power and finally managed to break through in the 28th minute of the game with Casemiro.
The game’s flow, however, completely switched after Real Madrid went 1-0 up. Barcelona started attacking after conceding, and not long after going down, Lionel Messi managed to level the score in the 33rd minute of the game. In the second half, both teams had a lot of chances to score, and both keepers made some fantastic saves to keep the score 1-1. In the 73rd minute, however, Ivan Rakitic finally got the ball past Keylor Navas and into Real Madrid’s goal to give them a 2-1 lead.
Shortly after this, Sergio Ramos got sent off for a two-footed tackle on Lionel Messi. This made it even harder for Real Madrid to get back into the game. It seemed that this would prove to be the winner for Barcelona, but right at the end of the game, in the 85th minute, James Rodriguez managed to score for Real Madrid to make the score level again. This sent Madrid fans into a frenzy, but their joy was about to be cut short by none other than Lionel Messi. In the game’s last play, Lionel Messi managed to sneak into the box and finish into the bottom corner to make Barcelona win 3-2 with the very last kick of the game.
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