With the El Clasico almost upon us, now is perhaps the ideal time to reminisce some of the one-sided contests between legendary rivals Real Madrid and Barcelona. Some of the matches featured stalwarts of the club, some (expectedly) were controversial, some a long time back (1935, anyone?).But they all had one thing common. They had a clear winner and gave one side the bragging rights over the other, making these matches an essential part of the legacy of El Clasico.
#1 November 2015: Real Madrid 0-4 Barcelona
Though Lionel Messi
#2 May 2009: Real Madrid 2-6 Barcelona
Pep Guardiola's first season in charge of Barcelona yielded a historic treble, changing the course of El Clasico history and starting a period of Catalan dominance. Real had taken the title race into May by winning 17 and drawing one of their 18 league matches since the previous Clasico. Just 4 points off the pace, victory over their arch-rivals at home would help Los Merengues stretch the title-race to the last day and pull off a memorable come-back in the second half of the season.
Instead, the Catalan club annihilated Madrid with a 2-6 win in the Spanish capital. The victory would go down in the annals of Spanish football history as one of the most convincing and one-sided wins ever in El Clasico.
Xavi, Carles Puyol, Lionel Messi and Thierry Henry, in particular, were in irresistible form. Despite conceding an early goal from Gonzalo Higuain, the visitors came storming back courtesy of Henry and Messi braces and ruthlessly snuffed out the hopes of the Santiago Bernabeu faithful.
The most striking image of the match was one of Puyol kissing his captain band, which was the Catalan senyera [Catalan flag], after scoring Barca’s second goal. The gesture was, perhaps, a sign of things to come.
#3 May 2008: Real Madrid 4-1 Barcelona
Real had already wrapped up the La Liga title race and, in compliance with Spanish tradition, Barcelona formed a guard of honour and magnanimously clapped their traditional rivals on to the pitch.
The night was not to get any better for the Catalan club, eventually ending in a red card for Xavi in injury-time. Raul, Arjen Robben, Gonzalo Higuain and Ruud van Nistelrooy scored for Bernd Schuster’s side and precipitated the end of Frank Rijkaard’s tenure as manager of Barcelona.
The victory would turn out to be the last meaningful Clasico contribution by a certain Raul Gonzalez Blanco – the man who came from across town (read Atletico Madrid youth ranks) to reside in Madridistas’ hearts. It was also a reminder of the talent of cantera product Guti – a footballer who could be so frustrating for teammates and fans alike, yet a pleasure to watch on his day.
Most importantly, though, this would be Real’s last big win over Barcelona to date. What has followed since is an era of Catalan dominance, led by none other than Lionel Messi.
#4 November 2010: Barcelona 5-0 Real Madrid
The whistles rang out around the majestic amphitheatre like a knife on glass. It was the noise of nearly 100,000 jubilant souls, and yet its target was one greying, glowering Portuguese manager in a trenchcoat. For a decade, José Mourinho had been Barcelona’s bête noire, but on that night the Catalans, with as compelling a masterclass in football’s artistry as we are ever likely to see, exacted their glorious revenge.
Mourinho had said that his side would lose one day, but he did not expect to lose like this – not after enjoying the greatest start of any coach in Real Madrid's history. His team, so impermeable before, were punctured. Five times. They were sunk.
A 5-0 victory for Barcelona was described by the Madrid coach as a "historically bad result" for his club – it was the worst defeat he had suffered in his career.
All pre-match estimates pointed to a close and hard-fought game, but Barça outplayed Real Madrid from the start. Led by the ‘magic diamond’ of Busquets, Xavi, Iniesta and Messi, the Catalans were 2-0 up at the break. Beautifully-engineered first-half strikes by Xavi and Pedro represented the least the imperious home side deserved, but a brace for David Villa set the party alight.
Even the substitutes were not to be denied the entertainment, as Jeffren pounced late to convert Bojan’s measured lay-off from the right for a fifth with seconds remaining. Sergio Ramos, scything down Messi before pushing fellow international Puyol, was sent off in injury-time to complete Mourinho’s misery.
One of the best team performances of this century and Lionel Messi's curious absence from the scoresheet goes some way to justify that tag.
#5 1935: Real Madrid 8-2 Barcelona (at Estadio Chamartin)
Having not lost to Barcelona in four years, Real Madrid humiliated Barcelona in an 8-2 victory. Spanish midfielder Jamie Lazcano, who scored Real’s first ever La Liga goal in 1929, opened the scoring in the 14th minute and went on to bag a hat-trick.
Sañudo ended the night with 4 goals, the most a player has ever scored when the two sides have met. Even defender Luis Regueiro managed to get his name on the score sheet.
This is the biggest margin of victory between the two clubs in a competitive game. The next slide reveals a game with an even bigger margin, but its validity is questionable due to the controversy surrounding the tie.
#6 1943: Real Madrid 11-1 Barcelona
Barcelona went into the second leg of the Copa Del Generalísimo, which is what the Copa Del Rey was known as under Francisco Franco's dictatorship, with a 3-0 lead. However, in a story of dictatorship, regionalism and threats to Barcelona players and referees alike, Real Madrid won the second leg with a flabbergasting 11-1 win, leading 8-0 at the break.
The general’s men had supposedly threatened the Barcelona players and their families with imprisonment if they did not lose. The referee was completely in Madrid’s favour, supposedly due to similar threats. Whistles were distributed at the entrances to magnify the atmosphere.
Although it is claimed that general Franco hugely helped out Real Madrid, Madrid lost the final to local rivals Atletico Aviacion (precursor to Atletico Madrid). It seems that the general’s favouritism for Real extended only to suppress the Basque (Athletic Bilbao) and Catalan (Barcelona) regions, not to mention that Aviacion was the side he originally sided with, before switching loyalties once Real started winning.
Nevertheless, the fixture ensured that Real Madrid vs Barcelona would represent more than a game of football for years to come. And with the Catalan community pushing for independence, the upcoming El Clasico might be played in the same spirit (albeit as a fair competition) as it was 72 years ago.
#7 Michael Laudrup wins 5-0 with both teams
In the history of El Clásico there is one scoreline that sticks in the minds of both sets of fans the most – 5-0. There have been seven 5-0 Clasico results in 261 total matches, and only two happened before the Second World War. In 1953, Alfredo Di Stefano led Madrid to such a scoreline. 21 years later Johan Cruyff returned the favour. And November 2011 saw the defining moment of Pep's high pressing tiki-taka.
But it was during the mid-1990s that Michael Laudrup became the only player to ever play on the winning side for both Barcelona and Real Madrid during 5-0 victories.
With Cruyff at the helm and a supporting cast of Laudrup, Koeman, Stoichkov, Guardiola and for the 93/94 season, Romario, Barcelona had assembled their famed Dream Team. And on 8 January 8 1994, Cruyff's Barcelona, playing a reincarnated version of Total Football, showed the world just how good they could be. Stoichkov, Guardiola and Romario were on fire, as was Laudrup.
If Michael Laudrup's performance in 1994 was of a genius at the peak of his ability, his performance almost exactly one year later was of "a man who plays like a magic illusion" as described by Cruyff after the game.
Real Madrid were to win La Liga fairly comfortably in 1994/95 while gaining revenge on Barcelona in spectacular fashion. Allegations that Laudrup had left Barca over a falling out with Cruyff gave this Clasico an extra sub-plot and despite there being no such animosity between the two greats, Laudrup's performance was heralded at the time as the perfect way to hit back at the Dutchman.
And with such a performance, the Danish playmaker had just become the first person to play on the winning side in two Clasico 5-0 victories, with the victories coming exactly one year apart. Quite the way to etch your name into El Clasico folklore.
