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What’s the story?
Former England footballer Steve McManamanrecently recently said that the El Clasico as the ‘best game in the world.’
In order to promote the Spanish League more among Indian fans, LaLiga is organising live screenings across the country for the last couple of years. After the successful screenings in Mumbai and New Delhi, La Liga is coming to Kolkata this time around. At least 25,000 fans will be able to witness the mega fixture at the East Bengal ground later this month.
McManaman, who will be present in Kolkata on October 28 at the live screening, spoke about the big fixture this in a recent interaction with LaLiga.
In case you didn’t know...
Though the stars are now busy with their respective countries, the excitement is already brewing for this marquee fixture of the Spanish League.
Real Madrid have failed to win or even score a goal in their last four fixtures, which include a Champions League loss to CSKA Moscow. Barcelona, too, couldn’t capitalise their chances in the league. They have not earned more than three points in their last four LaLiga matches, famously losing 2-1 to Leganes in September.
Before the mega clash, both clubs have contrasting fixtures. While Real have easy opponents in Levante and Victoria Plzen (Champions League), Barcelona will play LaLiga table-toppers, Sevilla, who comfortably defeated Real a couple of weeks ago and also pulled one over Inter Milan in the Champions League.
The heart of the matter
Speaking about the fixture, LaLiga brand ambassador McManaman said, “In Camp Nou, there are one lakh people in the stadium, in Bernabeu, there are 80 thousand. This is the fact why Spanish teams are so successful. They are dominating the competition for a number of years. They have the best players, they have been playing well in the last few years.”
McManaman played for Real Madrid for four seasons and became the second English player to play in Spain.
“You talk about [the likes of] Cristiano [Ronaldo] or [Lionel] Messi – they have given their best in this match. You talk about how Andres Iniesta has become a superstar. You know how Gareth Bale had scored the overhead kick in the Champions League final,” Mcmanaman said.
The former Manchester City and Liverpool player, who will interact with the fans before the live screening, went on to say, “These are the teams that everybody wants to bear, these are the teams that everybody wants to emulate, So it’s rightly said this is the best game in the world.”
What’s next?
El Clasico is arguably the most popular football game in the world, witnessed by millions of fans across the world. The footballing world will be glued on TV sets when the two teams lock horns in their first meeting of the season.
Unfortunately, there will no Ronaldo-Messi duel in the fixture this time around, as the former switched over to Juventus before the start of the season.
