Real vs Barca – The Build Up

Since Tuesday, when Chelsea nilled Barcelona away, hopes have been rising in Madrid that maybe, just maybe, Real could put one over the old enemy in Saturday’s second leg of ‘el Clasico’. A win in the Bernabeu would bring Real to within one point of the Catalans with four matches to play. ‘Squeaky bums time’ as someone in football once said.

The default mode of Spanish sports reporting is ‘intense’ but they’ve managed to ratchet it up a few notches . The national and local TV news and radio talk shows have been frothing up the tension all week and yesterday the sports paper AS consisted of 22 pages of Real-Barca, the TV guide and a picture of a semi-naked babe (she thinks 2-1 to Madrid BTW).

Also yesterday, the daily magazine show on TV called España Directo got caught up in the hype – and got caught out. A live report from Nuevos Ministerios was showing a special grand digital screen that has been set up to show text messages sent from Barca and Real fans (or anyone else who wanted to get involved) via something similar to Twitter – A Twitterfall in public as it were. Well, the super enthusiastic reporter was interviewing those responsible for the set-up and then getting vox-pops from people who had stopped to check out the excitement when he turned to the camera and said – OK let’s check out some of the messages. The camera focused on the screen and while there three messages flashed up, one after the other. The first said (and I’m paraphrasing here) ‘Stick it up your arse Barca, go f*** your mothers”, the second was simply “Sex!” and the third was “Eto, f*** off back to Africa and take your CDs with you” (a reference to the fact that many illegal African immigrants sell bootlegged CDs and DVDs on the streets).

They hurriedly cut back to the studio where the host presenter smoothly went on to another item.

Real Put Six Past Betis

Real Madrid sent out an ominous warning ahead of their Tuesday encounter with Liverpool in the Champions League by posting six goals past Real Betis – with all the goals coming in the first half.

This was Real’s ninth win on the trot, making 10 wins from 11, and was achieved against a team that last week had drawn against the previously untouchable Barcelona (spit…). To add to the Madridistas ecstasy, the Catalans were defeated at home for the first time this season in their derby match with Espanyol. Barcelona’s lead in La Liga has been whittled down to 7 points in the space of 14 days and there’s much talk in the pubs and bars that they could be choking – again – although this is probably a case of getting carried away as Barca have been resting key players ahead of Champions League duties and saving the tiny terror Messi from burnout.

Nonetheless, there’s a smile back at the Bernabeu and an even bigger one on the face of Real coach Juande Ramos, who only a few months back was heading ignominiously out of White Hart Lane.

Real Madrid Remains Top Of Rich List

Deloitte’s annual Football Money League was published yesterday with an analysis of football club revenues for the 2007-8 season. It showed Real Madrid, Manchester United and Barcelona retaining their top three positions.

Real Madrid increased revenue 4 per cent to €365.8m, even though commercial revenue fell, and the club is budgeting for €400m in revenue this season.

More details can be found at the Football Economy website.

Nine Months of Madrid-Barcelona AVE

Today marks 9 months of the AVE super-high speed train service between Madrid and Barcelona.

Statistics released to coincide with this mini anniversary show that approximately 35% of travellers on this route have swapped the plane for the train. Total train passengers since 20th February number just over 250,000. And RENFE, the state train company, said that total receipts for October ‘08 versus March ‘08 were 53% higher.

A success then. Maybe one day I’ll actually bother to go to Barcelona. Can’t see it happening soon though.

AVE Train – Success at last

Barcelona welcomed its first 220mph bullet train from Madrid yesterday. It arrived eight minutes early. Well, actually, it arrived six months late because of delays in the construction of the final couple of kilometres at the Barcelona end. Six months of works that have been recorded gleefully by Madrid based media outlets who took great delight in showing suffering Barcelona commuters whose local trains were severely disrupted during this period and also pointing out that the capital’s end of the project was completed on time.

The journey equates to approx 320 miles, which is roughly the distance from London to Newcastle. The AVE train covers this distance in 2 hours 45 minutes.

Most Madrilenos would have preferred an AVE line to Valencia, which is considered as the ‘Playa de Madrid’ (Madrid’s Beach) and where many own a holiday apartment or chalet. No right-thinking Madrileno intentionally goes to Barcelona unless it’s for work or an unavoidable family occasion – christening, wedding, funeral etc. Instead, they prefer to sniffily ignore it and regard the Catalunyan city as a terrible mistake wrought on Spain by a cruel and unfeeling God. The feeling is, apparently, mutual.