Real Madrid intends to be merciless with Barcelona
Humility isn't something readily associated with league leaders Real Madrid when the subject of their bitter rivals Barcelona comes up and it hasn't been much in evidence prior to their clash at Real's Santiago Bernabeu stadium today.
Humility isn't something readily associated with league leaders Real Madrid when the subject of their bitter rivals Barcelona comes up and it hasn't been much in evidence prior to their clash at Real's Santiago Bernabeu stadium today.
"We are going to humiliate Barcelona," bragged Real's Spanish international defender Ivan Helguera on Thursday. "At least 2-0. I think they have got their minds more on the champions league than on this game."
Barcelona coach Radomir Antic, who may rest several players in anticipation of the visit of Juventus on Tuesday in the champions league quarter-final second leg, confirmed he believed the champions league fixture was more important.
If Antic is looking ahead to his last realistic chance of qualifying for European competition next season, some of his players are not prepared to let their guard down despite having lost their last two league games and being down in 12th.
"We are the equal of Real," commented Barca's Dutch striker Patrick Kluivert, who has never tasted victory in the Bernabeu.
The last time Barcelona won was in November 1997, the season before Kluivert arrived at Barca.
The rivalry between Real and Barca is among the bitterest in club football anywhere in the world despite the clubs being several hundred kilometres apart.
In 1920, the playboy monarch Alfonso XIII gave the royal moniker to an already successful Madrid club which had won the Spanish Cup several times.