With it often pitting the greatest players and teams in the world against each other, El Clasico is undoubtedly one of football’s most iconic matches.
The second of the season will take place in the Supercopa de Espana with Barcelona and Real Madrid beating Real Betis and Valencia on penalties respectively to reach the final.
It will be the 251st competitive match the two have played against one another, but which side has won more of those?
El Clasico, which translates in English to ‘The Classic’, is the name given to any match that takes place between Barcelona and Real Madrid.
The long-standing rivalry the two clubs share is one of the biggest in football and stems from both sporting and non-sporting reasons.
They have historically held opposing political beliefs with Real Madrid supporting Spanish nationalism and Barcelona supporting Catalonian nationalism, and that has long created tension between the two.
So too has the fact that they’ve almost always been the two biggest and best sides in the country, therefore always competing against each other for the biggest trophies, making the clashes all the more fiery.
What makes the rivalry so great more than anything is how evenly matched the two clubs have been over the years.
They’ve played 250 competitive matches against one another since first meeting on a competitive stage in 1902, and Real Madrid have tasted victory on more occasions, picking up 101 wins.
It’s remarkably close though with Barcelona winning 97 times themselves – just over a quarter of the matches have ended on level terms.
Thanks in large part to their superior head-to-head record, Real Madrid have won nine more league titles than their rivals and lifted the Champions League, formerly known as the European Cup, nine more times – the two have met in the semi-finals of the competition three times with Los Blancos progressing to the final twice.
