Barcelona Host Real Madrid in First Round of El Clasico

After several great months in Spanish football and with some of the best players in the world joining La Liga, Barcelona will host Real Madrid in what will arguably be the biggest match of the year in La Liga today at the Camp Nou.

Last season, FC Barcelona had a dream season in which they became the first Spanish side to win the Spanish treble, consisting of La Liga, the Copa del Rey, and the UEFA Champions League, and also dominated against Real Madrid by beating them by a 2-0 score at the Camp Nou, and a 6-2 thrashing at the Bernabeu.

However, Fiorentino Perez became the President of Real Madrid after resigning in 2006, and ushered in a new Galactico's era by signing some of the best players in the world such as Kaka and Cristiano Ronaldo, and promised that Real Madrid would once again become one of the best sides in the world.

Since then, much emphasis has been put on this match at the Camp Nou in Barcelona, as we will now get a better understanding of which side is not only the best in La Liga, but could be the best side in the world.

For Barcelona at the Camp Nou, the main question for them will be the fitness of players such as Lionel Messi and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who are both fighting against the clock to be fit for El Clasico after picking up injuries over the last week, and both did not feature in their Champions League home match against Inter Milan during the week, even though both were available as substitutes.

Barcelona also find themselves just one point behind Real here and will be looking to preserve their perfect La Liga record at the Camp Nou here.

But, if there is one thing that Barcelona need to stop here more than anything else, it must be how are they going to stop the attack of Real Madrid here, which will be attacking the Barcelona defense as much as possible here.

Meanwhile for Real Madrid, they will be looking to continue to play strong football knowing that they will have Cristiano Ronaldo available after his 20 minute appearance during the Champions League this week against FC Zurich at the Bernabeu.

Also, Real will have the pressure of the Galactico era on their shoulders here, as the success of Barcelona was part of the reason why it was re-implemented by Perez this summer.

And of course, Real Madrid will continue to attack all game long and it will be interesting to see how well they will do against the Barcelona defense here.

Finally, this El Clasico match will be very intriguing to watch today, as these are two of the most entertaining sides to watch in the world and both of these sides need to win here to prove to the other that they are the best side in La Liga.