‘El Clasico is the biggest match in football’ - former Real Madrid winger Steve McManaman

‘El Clasico is the biggest match in football’ - former Real Madrid winger Steve McManaman

Oct 5, 2012 9:50:00 AM

He has lined up for Liverpool against Manchester United, but the Champions League and Liga winner insists nothing compares to Madrid's rivalry with Barcelona

EXCLUSIVE
By Billy Rice

Sunday night will see Barcelona and Real Madrid lock horns in La Liga for the first time this season, with Jose Mourinho's reigning champions sitting eight points behind their rivals.

Speaking exclusively to Goal.com, former Real Madrid winger Steve McManaman recounted his Clasico experiences, insisting that the fixture represents the 'biggest match in football'.

"When you play at Camp Nou, certainly from when you play at home, everyone knows it’s two factions within Spain – the Catalans against the Madridistas, Catalunya against Spain – their instant dislike for each other, their rivalry, their religion.

"It’s a very strange match; fuelled by a long, long, centuries old divisive aim where, generally they dislike each other so much."

"There’s a lot of rivalry between Liverpool and Manchester United, certainly, and Liverpool and Everton, but I've never seen rivalry of this standard because of the nature of the political factions within Spain."

Steve McManaman speaking at the Kicking and Screening festival's premiere of El Clasico, a film investigating the rivalry between Real Madrid and Barcelona.

Kicking and Screening | El Clasico

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