Scheherazade used to tell stories to Emperor Shahryar in the Arabian Nights. Those strange stories opened many doors to the fantasy kingdom. Each story is full of excitement and excitement. Of course, we have left those stories of Arabian Nights and Scheherazade. The days of sitting in the feast and telling stories are no more.
But at this time, if the Mim or Gen-Ji generation is told the story of the Arabian Nights, then what will be the story? What about his characters and characters? The thrilling stories of football will surely be added there. And when football comes, ‘El Clasico’ will definitely come. This fairy tale is incomplete without the story of Real Madrid and Barcelona’s fire.
It is in this one match that is written, the story of the thousand nights of the Arabian Nights. The story can change but the dignity and heat of the story does not diminish one bit. For almost a hundred years, people have always kept these Real-Barca dualities at the top. Another episode of that duel tonight in Jeddah, the Spanish Super Cup final.
If you calculate the time of the match, the history of El Clasico is 123 years old. During this time, the two teams have given numerous classic matches. In the long journey, however, the tension has changed. The form of dominance has also changed. Sometimes the popularity has fallen. But despite all this, El Clasico has never lost its classical value.
Although the history of El Clasico is more than 100 years old, its popularity and thrill touched the peak in the 1950s. Spain was undergoing tremendous economic and social changes. According to one estimate, between 1963 and 1971, the country’s per capita income doubled.
And in the midst of this social and economic change, Real-Barca’s El Clasico was broadcast on television for the first time in 1959. Around this match, there was a rush to buy televisions in Spain at that time. Since then, the Real-Barca duel has started to get a classical dimension, which today is one of the best battles in the sports world, including football.
Football writer Sid Lowe, in his book ‘Fear and Loathing in La Liga’, compared El Clasico to life and death. What a coincidence with the story of the Arabian Nights. The stories stood as a wall between Scheherazade and death in the Arabian Nights. These anecdotes saved Scheherazade from the tyrant Shahryar. Similarly, the stories surrounding this dichotomy make El Clasico, which transcends life and death in a symbolic sense, even more great.
Real Madrid and Barca are going to face the Super Cup final for three consecutive seasons in Saudi Arabia. The El Clasico is currently a 1-1 draw.
After Barcelona won in 2023, Real Madrid won in 2024. Today it is the turn of one of the teams to move forward. For Real, however, this match is important from another aspect. If they win today, they will touch Barca by winning the maximum 14 titles in the Super Cup. And Barca’s goal will be to increase the gap by winning the title today.
In today’s match, however, no one can be called absolute favorites. Neither the recent performance nor the statistics can keep anyone ahead. Real coach Carlo Ancelotti said the same thing after winning the semi-final against Mallorca. According to him, it has become difficult to predict El Clasico in recent times.
Because both teams have lost to each other by a big margin recently. In the last Super Cup final, Real beat Barca 4-1. And in the first leg of the current season in La Liga, Barca won 4-0 goals at Bernabeu. Even if the stars of the two teams stand face to face, no one’s monopoly will be seen.
Due to the star brilliance, today’s match will be especially eye-catching. According to Transfermarkt, the four big stars of this match are Mbappe, Vinicius, Yamal and Bellingham combined, which is more than the entire squad of Atletico Madrid, Inter Milan or Juventus. It’s unbelievable.
All in all, today’s match is very important for the title fight as well as setting the tone of the new year. Both teams will want to start the new year from the peak of confidence by defeating the arch-rivals. This desperate desire on both sides will add a new color to this duel. Maybe it will be written a new story in the Arabian Nights of Football.