Hansi Flick’s reinvented league leaders head to Spanish capital as equals after re-emerging from Real’s shadow

Once upon a time there was a football match. They called it el clásico and it was a classic every time, the biggest and best in the whole wide world. Everyone watched it and everything depended on it, so the story goes. It was built up and up and up and still never let you down, an epic battle between two behemoths who went 54 games and 17 years without a 0-0, going all the way back to the night a pig’s head was thrown at Luís Figo, and who scored 125 goals in a decade. Barcelona and Real Madrid were, after all, the best teams with the best coaches and best players on the planet, matched only by each other.

Were? Are? There is no rivalry like Madrid-Barça and that remains the case, a meeting with a scale and symbolism nothing equals, huge every time. There have been special moments recently, too. And this week’s talk of the best clásico they could remember, a recurring theme on radio and TV, points at extremely short memories and invites fate to leave them looking foolish. But Saturday’s meeting does feels a little different; these two might, just might, actually be the best teams in Europe again; this could be a battle the way it used to be, closer and more competitive than anyone anticipated. A clash of styles and identities. Above all, a clash of titans.