In the history of the Clasico (which wasn't always called the Clasico), only Di Stefano and maybe Johan Cruyff have done as much to tilt the power balance toward one of these great, historic rivals. Whether or not this happens to be Messi's last joust with his eternal rival, and given that one of his chief tormentors, Sergio Ramos, isn't playing, will the Argentine's inherently voracious instincts mean we are in for a Clasico masterclass in which he torments Real Madrid with his old majesty? Real Madrid icon Sergio Ramos is somehow in this team. Before the era of Xavi, Andres Iniesta, Pep Guardiola the coach, Carles Puyol, Gerard Pique, Messi, Ronaldinho, Eto'o, Sergio Busquets, Neymar and Luis Suarez, it's not that Barcelona couldn't beat Real Madrid -- it's just that they didn't do it all that often. Of the 23 other club opponents Messi has faced 10 times or more, his win rate is usually much higher than that, hovering around 80% in most instances. You can't help hoping so too, that all of these words here are worthless -- yeah, sorry about that, but plus ca change and all that -- and that with any luck, we can do it all again next year. By. After Real Madrid cruise past Eibar, Janusz Michallik expects them to push Atletico and Barca all the way in La Liga. "He makes his team better, the league better, and the Clasico nicer.". In what will be seen as an embarrassing oversight, secret ‘principles’ hidden in the website code for the Super League were uncovered. Ronaldo, Messi, Ramos, Mourinho, Guardiola and many others have joined the battle against coronavirus. There are only two players in mind here, Lionel Messi and Sergio Aguero, two friends and Argentina international colleagues, lead our attack. It showed, too. Milan have not featured in the Champions League since 2014, but look certain to end their exile next season. Ramos, left, and Messi, right, have defined the Clasico for well over a decade. Several footballers such as Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappe, Sergio Ramos to ex-footballers such as Garry Neville and Freddie Ljungberg were seen enjoying the holiday season with friends, family, and their fans. The Super League plan is here, and it’s half-baked and gives nowhere near enough detail for such a seismic announcement. But for once, the stats actually tell a good tale. They have to win this Clasico too, and as ever, the obligation is an opportunity. At 33 and 32 respectively, there should still be plenty left in the tank for two of the greatest players in modern times. They couldn't, could they? Download Angry Ramos & Ronaldo & Messi & Robben and enjoy it on your iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. He struggled at Old Trafford, but subsequently enjoyed a resurgence in Ligue 1 with Lyon, becoming instrumental in their run to last season’s Champions League semi finals. You know who won't miss Messi if he goes? This meeting happens against a backdrop of Madrid having won, clinically and deservedly, at Camp Nou last autumn, Madrid being the defending league champions and Madrid owning the head-to-head record this season that would automatically make them champions if the two sides finished equal after 38 games. Elland Road was empty, but fans made their displeasure known, Rooney: Spurs 'crazy' to axe Mou before Cup final, Klopp slams Leeds 'earn it' shirts: 'A real joke! He is joined in the centre of our defence by Bayern Munich’s David Alaba, who could be heading to Madrid himself if reports are to be believed. Messi, Ramos have helped define Clasico. - Alcoyano, Levante, Shakhtar Donetsk (twice), Alaves, Cadiz. No more; the head-to-head stats are as tight as the seals on a submarine's portholes. It's not an arithmetical fact, but the suspicion lingers that unless Barcelona can win this test against their (and Messi's) favourite rivals, the league title may just be beyond them. Privacy Policy   Disclaimer  About Us  Sitemap   RSS. Now, the gap is tiny: a single point from Barcelona, three above Madrid. -- Graham Hunter. Some of the best players in the world are free to talk to some clubs now, and it’ll be interesting to see whether they remain with their current sides or if they’ll be on the move in the summer. We are a singular, all-platform Transfer destination encapsulating all media elements like written, audio, visual, Live-blogs, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. - Don't have ESPN? Did you see his evangelistically joyful celebrations when Sevilla were defeated in the Copa semifinal at Camp Nou last month? Saturday marks the second and final clash between longtime Spanish rivals Real Madrid and Barcelona for the 2020-21 season. Will this be their last? Against no other opponent, whether club or country, has Messi lost a double-digit number of games. April 10, 2021 Admin 4 Views 0 Comments. What's your take? Ramos has been out of action due to a knee injury but he has commenced recovery after undergoing surgery and is expected to return for their game against Atalanta. - Insider Notebook: Madrid among clubs chasing Villarreal's Torres Ramos also said that Messi has earned the respect to decide his future at Barcelona. Just look at the stats Graham has outlined there. He's won 10 league titles and that, of course, means 10 league titles Real Madrid haven't won, at a time -- let it not be forgotten -- when they too have had some of the best players in the world. Our unique Player Valuation (PV) is purely based on data and very accurative. You can't help thinking that they'll be back. I was at his debut against Madrid, sitting next to my friend John Alexander, whose ticket in the section reserved for friends and family of Real Madrid players had "from Zinedine Zidane" stamped on it. Arsenal struggle as Bellerin, Gabriel get 4/10 but Nketiah saves the day, Courtois 9/10 as Real Madrid fail to beat Getafe and keep pace in tight La Liga title race, Leicester's Iheanacho shows he's ready to lead after sending Foxes to FA Cup final, Guardiola insisted Man City's Quad quest was impossible. "I saw him running towards Messi and I thought: 'He's going to whack him. Stunning because it's against one of the best, most ambitious, most "winning" clubs in football history? It is a fact, however, that since December, Ronald Koeman's Barcelona have intermittently played the most thrilling, most electric and smartest football of this strange La Liga season. Why the long ball still matters in elite soccer, Mourinho 'first Super League manager to lose their job': Social media reacts. Saying so underlines his own success, Madrid's success; maybe it makes sense. It may well be that this little marvel is the most dominant figure in the history of a beautiful, dangerous, culturally volatile fixture, but his win rate is less than 50%! It also comes against a backdrop of Messi having looked sluggish and short of cutting-edge crispness against Valladolid, having gone over two weeks without a match during the international break. Costa, Sturridge and the free agents clubs can still sign outside the transfer window, Hazard: Real Madrid's £45,330-per-minute man with more injuries than goals and assists, potential exit as leverage against Los Blancos, Madrid himself if reports are to be believed, European giants like Ajax and Celtic face ‘the end’ if Super League goes ahead, Five key Super League questions that remain unanswered, Super League chairman Florentino Perez wants to bin 90-minute matches, It is ‘impossible’ for Super League clubs to be banned from leagues, says Florentino Perez, Beckham on Super League: ‘Football is in danger and it must be protected’, Real Madrid chief Perez confirms Erling Haaland talks, ‘We can’t blame the team’ – Klopp says it’s wrong to be angry at the players for Super League decision, Level of opposition to European Super League laid bare with new poll. Spain writer. Guess which one is the list of games Madrid have won, and which is the list of games they lost? Messi has felt it too, quite literally. It's kudos to Real Madrid for working out the answer to "how do you solve a problem like La Pulga?". By Harry De Cosemo. Graham Hunter is a Barcelona-based freelance writer for ESPN.com who specializes in La Liga and the Spanish national team. Share with friends Real Madrid captain, Sergio Ramos, has urged Barcelona captain, Lionel Messi that the Los Blancos, Blaugrana and La Liga would want him to stay at Camp Nou amid interest from Manchester City. Against Los Blancos, Messi has "only" scored five times in their past 17 meetings. And once they failed to get him, Madrid became a foil. If the clubs entering the Super League weren’t involved in this season’s Premier League, who would top the table, and who would be relegated? And yet, Ramos has never had any doubts that "the best" meant Messi. Two Clasicos later, the seeds that were sown in his first game against Real Madrid flowered with a hat trick at Camp Nou, as when Barcelona's 10 men (with defender Oleguer red-carded) wrested a 3-3 draw against a thunderously powerful, Ruud van Nistelrooy-inspired Madrid. The new European Super League was announced over the weekend, but we could see a fundamental change in how the game is actually played, too. But Luka Modric, the 2018 Ballon d’Or winner, is too big a star to leave out even at the age of 35. Ramos, left, and Messi, right, have defined the Clasico for well over a decade. The only thing Sergio Ramos has not won as a professional player is the Ballon d'Or award. The Madrid captain even took on the late Diego Maradona when he had criticised Messi, saying that the 1986 World Cup-winning captain was "light years" behind his countryman. Graham Hunter. Saturday brings another Clasico in the Messi era. Madrid had won less than half of all their games, faced elimination from the group stages of the Champions League for the first time ever, and a huge week lay ahead, with must-win games against Sevilla, Borussia Monchengladbach and Atletico. Real are ahead after a convincing 3-1 win […] Manchester United and Ivorian defender Eric Bailly in action. Sergio Ramos (384) Gerard Piqué (379) Lionel Messi (84) Cristiano Ronaldo (76) Iker Casillas (46) Fernando Torres (37) Neymar (29) Isco (28) Cesc Fàbregas (27) Luka Modrić (23) Include Relationships Gerard Piqué/Sergio Ramos (417) Lionel Messi/Cristiano Ronaldo (51) Sergio Ramos/Fernando Torres (22) Luka Modrić/Ivan Rakitić (13) (Please note, who's the hero and who's the baddie depends wholly on which club you support: the roles are fully interchangeable!) One of the standout facts, I reckon, is that one way or another, Madrid have increasingly got his measure in recent seasons. ... Advert. And Cruyff had two chances, as player and as manager, to do it. Legit.ng earlier reported that Lionel Messi and former Barcelona teammate Cesc Fabregas are set to play in the Major League Soccer in the United States. Remember in 2010, when Barcelona won 5-0 and the last thing Ramos did was run over and boot him into the air -- not so much a tackle, as an assault -- and one so premeditated that the referee that day, Eduardo Iturralde Gonzalez, could see coming. After all, facing the best makes you better, and beating the best makes success even greater. Fragmented flashbacks and memories of Leo Messi in between the sheets with his wife and his topping friends. Both men are free agents this summer. Ramos: At PSG they will make a team with me and Messi En Español T oday the Three Kings, the Wise Men I mean, come and sometimes they leave the coal in … Lionel Messi shocked the sporting world this week by announcing his intention to leave FC Barcelona after almost two decades.. European football has been through a rollercoaster 36 hours, so what has happened with regards to the newly announced Super League? As they always seem to do. Real Madrid. So do Barcelona. If Messi scores at the weekend, or indeed any weekend between now and the end of the season, it will be the thirteenth season in a row that he's scored at least 30 goals. ‎Read reviews, compare customer ratings, see screenshots and learn more about Angry Ramos & Ronaldo & Messi & Robben. Last year, Zidane had been on the verge of the sack before Christmas, and he went on to win the league. Ramos knows that too, and was explicit about it: "It's good for those of us who like to beat the best," he said. Follow us via your favourite channel. Next closest is Atletico Madrid, against whom he's lost eight of 42 meetings while winning 24. And this is the other element in play here. - Liverpool, Atalanta (twice), Atletico Madrid, Sevilla, Inter Milan, Barcelona For the good of this fixture, for the nourishment of La Liga and, unquestionably, for the benefit of FC Barcelona, who are fundamentally committed to keeping their in-house genius, let's hope that win, lose or draw, we see the nimble, dancing, scheming legend from Rosario, Argentina gliding and dribbling across the Camp Nou and Santiago Bernabeu pitches many more times in classic Clasicos. This could be the end, too, with Messi's future uncertain and Ramos injured. Can they convert that to a seismic result when the chips are down? Atletico were too far ahead. Right now, it seems certain that Lionel Messi is revitalised, happy, evangelically recommitted to Barcelona -- as certain as it was last August that he would be, at any cost, leaving FC Barcelona. Lionel Messi Explains Why He, Cristiano Ronaldo Are Not Friends Lionel Messi says his life doesn't cross paths with Cristiano Ronaldo's outside of the field and award ceremonies. His contract is up at the end of the season, and while it always feels like there can't be any outcome other than him and the club agreeing a deal to keep him there -- "the best thing for the club is that Ramos stays, the best thing for Ramos is that Ramos stays," teammate Nacho said this week -- he still hasn't renewed and his relationship with them isn't good. If he does leave, which is looking increasingly likely, Messi's departure would be the biggest transfer ever in football — both in financial value and sheer gravity — and bring down the curtain on possibly the greatest club dynasty in the sport's history. - Stream ESPN FC Daily on ESPN+ (U.S. only) "Without Leo, we would have won more," he says. I'd ducked work duties and was just there to savour it -- little did I know there would be a clever, confident cameo performance that, though dwarfed by Ronaldinho's two brilliant goals in a 3-0 win that night, would endure long past the Brazilian's sell-by date. Yeah, nice try, Sergio. Here are the top 100 players and managers in men's soccer, as rated by our experts. ***** Now it's 4 games in 1:-Angry Ramos Description-Ramos is about to shoot the last penalty, the tension is in the air, the referee blows the whistle and... look at it go! Two of the fanged devils, in fact. Which is why, ahead of this weekend, it's a little strange to break down Messi's Clasico numbers. But if not, what are we left with? "It was one of those you can 'smell,'" he recalled. It should probably go without saying that Messi has faced no other rival as many times as he's played Real Madrid, one of the two clubs that was hovering in hope when, back in 2001-02, negotiations between Barca's slow directors and his father, Jorge, were turning sour. It's true, too, that Ramos' absence would as well. It may be time for him to leave Real Madrid, but he won’t be short of offers. Messi, Ramos, Agüero & more: 2021 Summer free agents XI. The all-time Clasico scorecard was heavily balanced in favour of Los Merengues. Alejandro Moreno lays out the reasons why Lionel Messi and Barcelona have the edge vs. Real Madrid. He cared not a jot for the stage or the baying Real Madrid fans; he wasn't put off by the racist abuse that both Samuel Eto'o and Ronaldinho suffered, nor could Madrid's players subdue him. ... Tell your friends. Manchester City have been heavily linked, where he could link up with Aguero, but his injury troubles are adding more doubt to his future. Zinedine Zidane on Friday said that he hoped Lionel Messi and Sergio Ramos won't have played their last Clasicos come the end of the season, with doubts over the futures of the Barcelona and Real Madrid captains ahead of a huge La Liga encounter. Barcelona have lost none in 19. Perez has been speaking about the Super League, which has been heavily criticised from all corners of the football world, Former Manchester United and Real Madrid star David Beckham has hit out at the European Super League saying football is now ‘in danger’, Haaland is a wanted man this summer and Perez confirmed that Real Madrid are interested in signing the striker this summer, though they may face competition, Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp is not a fan of the Super League, and is keen to stress that the fans shouldn’t blame the players, The biggest clubs on the continent are looking to join a self-governed European Super League, and it has been condemned almost universally. 10. The trophy count, particularly in La Liga and the Champions League, has metamorphosed. This year, the same thing happened: In December, he was on the way out. It seemed 100%, cast-iron certain just a handful of months ago that everything was broken, that Messi was sick to the back teeth of being surrounded by mediocrity and mendacity, and yet here we are. - Griezmann nets hat trick with third child born on same day We update our social channels with the latest on Transfers. It showed, too. Usually, age is a factor in highly-rated players seeing their contracts run down. Barcelona is presently battling to […] While it may be that he is using the risk of a potential exit as leverage against Los Blancos, it is still difficult to comprehend that his future is up in the air at this stage of the season. Cristiano Ronaldo reveals whether he’s friends with Barcelona star Lionel Messi Cristiano Ronaldo believes Lionel Messi is the best player he has ever played against. You can take it to the bank that Barcelona's No. In the case of our full-backs, Elseid Hysaj of Napoli and PSG’s Juan Bernat, are both 27. After reaching 767th appearance for Barcelona, Lionel Messi is hailed to be the most important player in the club’s history by coach Ronald Koeman. European Super League: The timeline, the reaction, the consequences, The ‘hidden message’ in the Super League’s botched website launch, ‘His owners threw him under a bus’ – Neville defends Klopp after incredible outburst, Wayne Rooney defends Man United decision to join Super League, ‘I like West Ham might play Champions League’ – Klopp speaks out against European Super League, UEFA confirm Champions League expansion from 32 to 36 teams.