The long-awaited El Clasico between Real Madrid and Barcelona will take place in the autumm of this year and in the spring of 2025, on the 27th of October, 2024, in matchday 11th. The return leg will be on the 11th of May, 2025, on matchday 35, with just three games remaining afterwards.
La Liga broadcasts are always exciting. Naturally, matches between Barcelona and Real Madrid attract bettors worldwide. It is always hard to make El Clasico forecasts, as the clash includes two highly motivated teams, making it that much more unpredictable, which in turn makes it difficult for Gamblorium bettors to determine the best market to bet on. However, Nodar Giorgadze names analytics as one of the main features of success in football betting to look to.
Currently, El Clasico is the 2nd most essential football event, with only the Champions League final is ahead in TV audiences, exceeding that of the Europa League final. The confrontation dates back to 1902. This year, the newborn Real Madrid played its first match with Barcelona. Los Blancos lost that match 3-1. Thus began the greatest rivalry in football history.
Last season both matches ended in Real Madrid’s favour, the first going their way in October 2023, with a 2-1 away win. The second meeting at home in April 2024 finished 3-2, all but confirming Real Madrid as champions at the end of the 2023/24 season, while Barcelona took the 2nd place. Plenty has happened in the 122 years of history between the two, but here are the players that have made the most impact in terms of goals.
Lionel Messi (Barcelona): High Performance & Hat-Tricks
The 1st place is unlikely to surprise anyone! Lionel Messi is the top Clasico scorer. The Argentine made his debut for Barcelona’s team in 2004. Since then, he has become the Catalan club’s best player in their history and top scorer too. For the first time in a Clasico, Messi announced himself in the match against Real Madrid, which took place on the 11th of March, 2007. That day, he scored a hat-trick against Los Blancos and helped his team avoid defeat at jsut 19 years of age.
Alfredo Di Stefano (Real Madrid): The Best 18 Los Blancos Goals
Alfredo Di Stefano is arguably the 2nd most important figure in the history of Real Madrid after Santiago Bernabeu. However, he was once close to becoming a Barcelona player. In the early 50s, Di Stefano became the subject of a dispute between Barcelona and Real Madrid. Both Spanish clubs claimed the striker, but it was Los Blancos who ended up getting Di Stefano for the majority of his best years.
Di Stefano became a legend at the Madrid club, where he won 18 trophies with Los Blancos, including 5 European Cups. Besides that, he scored in each of the 5 finals of the main European tournament. For many years, Di Stefano was the top scorer for Real Madrid (308), the European Cup (49) and El Clasico (18). But now all these records have been broken. In 2000, Real Madrid management appointed Di Stefano as honorary president of the club. The great football player remained in this position until his death in 2014.
Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid): 18 Goals to match Di Stefano
Cristiano Ronaldo moved to Real Madrid in 2009, starting a thrilling confrontation with Lionel Messi. This, in turn, increased the popularity of El Clasico – millions of football fans wanted to watch the battle between the two best football players.
The Portuguese performed well against Barcelona after some early struggles, scoring 18 goals in 30 matches. Ronaldo probably scored his best goal against the Blaugrana in April 2016. That interrupted Barça’s unbeaten streak, which lasted 39 matches. In 2018, he left Real Madrid for Juventus, but racked up a fairly large number of club records which are unlikely to be broken by anyone in the near future.
Raul Gonzalez (Real Madrid): 15 Goals Against Barcelona
Raul Gonzalez Blanco’s youth career began at the age of 11, when he was tried out at the San Cristobal FC academy. He was one of the best students at the academy, impressing the entire coaching staff with his play. After a spell at Atletico Madrid, in 1994, Raul signed a professional contract with Real Madrid.
He was the main symbol of Real Madrid for more than 10 years. He spent almost 20 years there, including time in the youth academy. From 2003 to 2010, he was also the team captain, an outstanding footballer and an inspiring leader. He was always ready to help his teammates and was known for his high professionalism. Today, Raul remains a hero for Madridistas, and is currently in charge of their Castilla side, the reserves to the first team. In total, the Spaniard played 741 matches for the club and scored 323 goals, 15 of which were against Barcelona.
Cesar Rodriguez (Barcelona), Paco Gento and Ferenc Puskas (Real Madrid): 14 Goals
Cesar Rodriguez is also one of the greatest Barcelona’ players. He remained the club’s top scorer for many years. The Spaniard played for Barcelona from 1939 to 1955 and won 13 trophies. He played 433 matches for the Blaugrana and scored 301 goals, 14 of which against arch enemies Real Madrid.
Two of Real Madrid’s greatest legends came along shortly after Rodriguez, in Real Madrid’s golden era in the 1960s. Hungarian maestro Ferenc Puskas kicked off that run in Europe of European Cups, while Paco Gento remains the leader for the most amount of European Cups in history, only equalled by Toni Kroos, Luka Modric, Dani Carvajal and Nacho Fernandez this summer.
