Barça and Real Madrid share their sorrows in the Clásico, filled with rage and fear of losing.

History repeats itself. After a Champions League elimination, El Clásico arrives. Real Madrid followed suit after falling in the quarterfinals just ten minutes later, and they also succumbed in the Copa del Rey final. Now Barça has to digest the defeat , failing to redeem their favoritism against Inter Milan and exiting in the semis. LaLiga, the definitive stage of the ultimate football duel. This season, the record is overwhelmingly in favor of the Blaugranas: they have won all three official matches (3-2, 2-5, and 4-0) . Barça has to digest the defeat .

The numbers make for an obvious scenario. Barça heads into their home Clásico (Montjuïc) as the clear favorite... But there's still room for improvement. There are four points separating the two teams. A win, or even a draw, with three games left in the domestic competition would leave the Catalans as virtual winners. At this stage of the season, the feeling is that only Barça can lose this league title . And there's no greater pressure than that.

Real Madrid has fully mourned. At this point, not even an epic victory is going to change the club's plans. Florentino Pérez has already decided that Carlo Ancelotti will not continue as Real Madrid coach. The idea has been on his mind since the beginning of the year; the team's poor performance over the last two months and the results were the final straw. Xabi Alonso's announcement confirming his departure from Bayer Leverkusen paves the way for next season, but what will happen with the Club World Cup—a real mess of schedules and preseason—remains to be seen .

Regardless of what happens in El Clásico, it has been leaked that Real Madrid and Ancelotti will announce the coach's departure next week . According to The Athletic , the board's current plan is to give the fans time to honorably bid farewell to a Real Madrid legend. The Italian has remained steadfast in his statements to the press that his future will be announced on May 25, the final matchday of La Liga.

An official announcement would calm the mood after a defeat. It will be a different story if Real Madrid emerges victorious at Montjuic. Changes of plan are common in the Santiago Bernabéu offices. Meanwhile, anger simmers in the locker room . They are aware that they are not in control of themselves, but at the same time, they know that a victory at their arch-rival's home would destabilize Hansi Flick's team. Nerves are coming into play.

The referees unite Barça and Real Madrid

The tricky thing about setting moral boundaries is that it's very difficult not to end up covered in mud. After losing to Inter Milan, all the Blaugrana's attention turned to Szymon Marciniak , the Polish referee for the second leg of the semi-final. His performance was seen in Barcelona as an offensive by UEFA against the club. First, Flick blurted out a complaint: "I'm not talking about the referees, but all the 50/50 decisions were in favor of Inter." It was like uncorking a champagne cork. The rest followed in a flurry.

Pedri and Gavi were the first players to fire their shots. The Sevillian was particularly pointed: "They didn't want us to reach that final because the season we're having made them feel scared." Without naming the party, the insider pointed to a UEFA conspiracy to prevent Barça from playing in the grand final in Munich on May 31.

Nor was there much self-criticism from Joan Laporta, who simply pointed to the match referee as the cause of the elimination. "Basically, because of refereeing decisions that were detrimental to us," the president declared. Just before the Copa del Rey final, Barça expressed its perplexity over Real Madrid's conduct and the infamous RMTV videos.

The conflict between Real Madrid and the referees erupted that weekend, with González Fuertes's surprisingly clumsy remarks against the club, as well as the threat of a tantrum from the club headed by Florentino Pérez. Although they later denied it, Real Madrid's leadership let slip to sympathetic media outlets that they were considering not showing up for the match. To no one's surprise, both teams chanted "we are alone and against everyone" to justify their defeats .

The ball, in the culé field

Flick has been working on the emotional side of his players these days . Íñigo Martínez, after the defeat to Inter, assured that the group was feeling good for the match against Madrid. Despite the statistics being heavily in favor of the Blaugrana side, the Copa del Rey final offered the most evenly matched Clásico of the entire season . At times, Ancelotti's team dominated Barça. Despite this, the Catalans demonstrated resilience (and offensive talent) to take the title.

As of today, LaLiga depends more on Barça losing than Real Madrid winning. Emotional matters are more important than you might think in football, and Los Blancos, despite their poor season in terms of play, believe in their chances of taking advantage of Blaugrana's negative momentum to deal a blow , who knows if it will be definitive, to the domestic competition. A duel of rage and grief on Montjuic.