What the Spanish media are saying ahead of El Clasico

The planet will come to a 90-minute standstill on Saturday as Real Madrid host Barcelona in the latest chapter of El Clasico.

It's a fixture that transcends Spanish football – or football altogether if we're being honest – and as kickoff draws nearer and nearer, the nation's media shift their focus away from depressing issues, such as Spain's economy, and towards an event that they'd much rather showcase to the world.

Previews, tactical analysis, stories about Cristiano Ronaldo, stories about Lionel Messi, and a myriad other items relating to the match have made their way into the country's newspapers in the past few days. Such is the norm. Such is how it will always be.

So, without further ado, here's what the Spanish media are saying ahead of the upcoming edition of El Clasico:

Marca

There's arguably no single media outlet that covers El Clasico quite like Marca, which advertises itself as "the best sports information in Spanish." Whether or not their self-assessment is justified is a discussion for another day, but they certainly have the most Clasico-heavy Spanish coverage you can find on the Internet.

Leading Marca's front page on Thursday is a story about the Santiago Bernabeu being Lionel Messi's favorite "hunting ground," which serves as a reminder of the fact that the Rosario, Argentina native could break Telmo Zarra's record of 251 La Liga goals during El Clasico. Messi has scored 250 goals in the domestic league.

Written by Pablo Egea, the article describes the stadium as somewhere where Messi "feels comfortable, is capable of everything, and where it's rare to see him not celebrating goals." Egea also goes on to write that "the Argentine grows at the white coliseum and Madrid supporters suffer."

Upon scrolling further down the front page, a poll appears that asks readers what they think about El Clasico being played on a Saturday.

Marca claim that "they want to hear from you," but since the daily has a reputation for supporting Real Madrid, let's assume that they're looking for only one answer and that it's a passive-aggressive way of referencing the fact that Barcelona will have had an extra 24 hours to rest for the match following midweek Champions League action.

Scrolling down even further, at the top of Marca's blog section is an excellent story from Santiago Segurola, who wonders if Luis Suarez will be able to mirror Johan Cruyff's Barcelona debut, where he scored two goals in a 4-0 victory over Granada.

Critics of giving Suarez starter status at the Bernabeu cite an obvious lack of time to get back into his stride. On this though, perhaps we should cast our minds back to a certain Johan Cruyff. The Dutch maestro made his club debut 41 years ago, on 28th October 1973 – the eighth game of the season, going up against Granada.

El Clasico will mark Suarez's first competitive match since he joined the Catalan club over the summer as he was handed a four-month suspension for biting some guy named Giorgio Chiellini at some tournament called the World Cup.

Speaking of which, last but not least on Marca's front page are the betting odds for a question that's on all of our minds: "Will Luis Suarez bite Sergio Ramos?"

Don't lie. That question was definitely on your mind. And if you believe that El Canibal could take a bite out of Real Madrid's backline, it might be worth putting down some money as the odds of a hungry occurrence taking place weigh in at 51-to-1.

AS

In direct competition with Marca's coverage of El Clasico is AS, another daily out of the Spanish capital.

Below the AS navigation bar on Thursday is a banner that contains news, statistics, polls, and images all relating to Saturday's fixture, among which the most entertaining are individual comparisons of players from similar positions.

Of course, the comparison that's generating the most buzz at the moment is the one that pits Cristiano Ronaldo against Messi as the pair are the most in-form footballers in the world at the moment with 15 goals and seven goals this season, respectively.

Below the aforementioned banner, the top story on the AS front page is an interesting piece on how Real Madrid's odds to defeat Barcelona have taken a bizarre hit after their 3-0 win over Liverpool.

As the article points out, Real Madrid went into the Champions League fixture with 2.37-to-1 odds of winning El Clasico, and despite emerging victorious, their odds of winning on Saturday have since dropped to 2.42-to-1. AS makes no attempt to guess why this is the case, but it could have something to do with the Catalan club's convincing performance versus Ajax on Wednesday.

It's also worth noting that the top video on the AS front page involves the infamous fight between Zinedine Zidane and Luis Enrique, which took place when Real Madrid met Barcelona in 2003. 

Nothing like a bit of good old-fashioned violence to get hyped up for Saturday.

Upon scrolling down, an article emerges that discusses the match's potential television audience of 400 million. El Clasico is set to be broadcast in over 100 countries, and with a local kickoff time of 6 p.m., it will be handily accessible to viewers in almost every continent.

El Mundo Deportivo

If you're looking for non-Madrid-based coverage of El Clasico, then El Mundo Deportivo has got you covered.

The daily, which is regarded as one of the most predominant sources of football in Catalonia, isn't shy about its love for Barcelona, and it should come as no surprise that the top story on Thursday's front page takes a look at Messi's 12 assists in El Clasico, the first of which came when the Argentine phenom was only 18 years old in 2005.

In case you were curious, here's a list of the eight players that Messi has set up in previous Clasicos:

• Samuel Eto'o
• Thierry Henry
• David Villa
• Andres Iniesta
• Alexis Sanchez
• Eric Abidal
• Pedro
• Cesc Fabregas

And thanks to Barcelona's official YouTube account, you can watch each of the 12 assists in one sweet three-minute video.

Scrolling down El Mundo Deportivo's front page is a feature that discusses Luis Enrique's Clasico debut as manager of the Catalan club.

Enrique is well aware of what it's like to play in the fixture as he featured for Real Madrid between 1991 to 1996 ...

and subsequently represented Barcelona from 1996 to 2004.

Saturday's match, however, will mark the first time that Enrique exits the tunnel at El Clasico as a manager.

Further down the front page is a Barcelona-heavy listicle of six players who recently featured in El Clasico but that will not be taking the pitch on Saturday. There were obviously a handful of footballers that El Mundo Deportivo could have selected, but they did a good job of narrowing it down.

• 1. Carlos Puyol
• 2. Xabi Alonso
• 3. Alexis Sanchez
• 4. Victor Valdes
• 5. Angel di Maria
• 6. Cesc Fabregas

To cap things off, the front page also includes the congratulations that the outlet received from Barcelona for publishing its 30,000th copy on Thursday.

Among those to congratulate El Mundo Deportivo were Xavi Hernandez, Iniesta, Gerard Pique, Neymar, and club president Josep Maria Bartomeu.