From Paul Giblin:
10.16.06
So the stage is just about set for El Classico!, El Derby! or whatever you want to call it.
Next Sunday sees Real Madrid entertain Barcelona in the Santiago Bernabeu. We will be there in glorious HD for what looks as if it could be a very early judgement day in La Liga.
Lets be honest Real Madrid may have been missing key defenders such as Cannavaro and Sergio Ramos in Getafe, but they were rubbish.
Iker Casillas said it was the worst performance he could remember and I agree with him. After the game they left quickly, none of the players spoke to the press and the only sounds echoing around Getafe were the insults of their fans hurled at the team bus.
Capello asked for 50 days to allow us to see the true Real Madrid; those 50 days were up on Saturday.
Now they have a Champions League game in Rumania to recover and then it's Barca. Should they lose again they would go 8 points behind the Catalans. 8 points from only 7 games is a lot and given that Capello is not all that popular among the fans, life would start to get hard for him.
As for Barca, they may have lost the European Supercup 3-0 to Sevilla, but in Sunday in the Primera Liga it was a different matter.
True they once again got the decisions from the ref (which is starting to worry me slightly) but they once again played some great football. Messi was magic, Ronaldinho again showed he can turn it on when he needs to and Iniesta is finally living up to his enormous potential.
They know a win in the Bernabeu will mean so much more than 3 points, it will tell Real Madrid they should forget La Liga once again and concentrate on winning other trophies.
Expect Madrid to improve and expect magic from Barca. It's the classico and we will be there.
Cheers PAUL
Of course the good news this week is that Athletic Bilbao returned to winning ways, Aupa los Leones!
Real Madrid vs.
Barcelona 
