Tomorrow evening there is a football match between Barcelona and Madrid. It’s called El Clasico or El Clàssic in Catalan, and is the name given to any match between these two teams. It is one of the most watched football matches in the world – hundreds of millions of people glued to their TV screens, as well as the lucky ones who are actually there to see it live.
As I’ve said before, I don’t know much about football, but it is easier to learn about it when it grabs your attention like this does.
To show how ignorant I am in general I will embarrass myself by admitting that I didn’t know there was a  Barça/Madrid match tomorrow night until I just saw it on TV.  Then I noticed something interesting – I felt nervous!  I realised it makes me anxious thinking about it and I know that when I am watching the game there will be butterflies in my stomach.
Weird isn’t it?
Five Things I Have Learnt About El Clàssic
1/   Real Madrid has more supporters in Spain than Barça does while Barça has more support in Europe. Worldwide, Real Madrid appears to win the number of supporters competition with over 228 million fans according to some studies. Perhaps if you keep expanding your horizon to include the universe,  Barça would come out top!
2/   Barça has won more Classic matches than Real Madrid.  Barça 103 – Real Madrid 90 (I’ve never seen them lose which is one reason for my pre-match anxiety)
3/   More players have switched from Barça to Madrid than the other way around with 17 going to the Spanish capital and only 4 coming to Catalunya. I wonder why? More money offered by Madrid?  Barça preferring to get new players elsewhere?
4/   The other rivalry is between the team coaches – Guardiola and Mourinho.  They share a first name but for Guardiola it is the Catalan version Josep/Pep and Mourinho is known as Jose.  In English? Joseph or Joe.

5/  When they speak in the after match discussion it is impressive how easily Guardiola slips between languages but I have just read that Morinho too speaks English, Italian, Spanish, French as well as Portuguese.  Guardiola speaks English, French, Italian, Spanish and Catalan so in this match there is a draw!