The Big Question: What is El Clásico without Ronaldo and Messi? | OneFootball

This El Clásico was supposed to be about the absence of one man: Cristiano Ronaldo. Real Madrid’s talisman, the club’s all-time top goalscorer, how would Real Madrid fare?

Suddenly, late last Sunday, Lionel Messi stole Ronaldo’s thunder yet again. The rivalry goes on.

Struck midway through the first half against Sevilla, Messi suffered a fractured arm, meaning he will also miss this weekend’s game at Camp Nou. Even now, with Ronaldo in Turin, it feels like Messi has somehow one-upped him.

For so long this fixture, which has undoubtedly become the biggest in football, has been a stage for Messi and Ronaldo to prove who is better. Gone are the days of the Galácticos, of La Masia, of political strife. El Clásico was the biggest game in the world and it was still just the backdrop for what has actually been the biggest footballing rivalry of the last 10 years: Lionel Messi v Cristiano Ronaldo.

It’s hard to imagine anyone ever matching Ronaldo’s record of scoring in this fixture in six consecutive games.

Ronaldo scored in seven of Madrid’s 10 Clásico wins since he joined the club in 2009, while his 18 goals against Barcelona account for almost a third of Madrid’s total over the last nine seasons.

Then there’s Messi, the top goalscorer (26 goals) and creator (14 assists) El Clásico has ever seen.

For such a long time, this fixture pitted 20 men and two complete freaks of nature against each other. But not this time.

So, what is this match without the pair? Without the game within the world’s biggest game?

It is, for the record, still unmissable and leaking with narratives.

A cursory glance at the league table tells you something’s up with Real Madrid. The root of their issues may well be the summer sale of Cristiano Ronaldo (and failure to replace him with anyone remotely adequate) but he’s gone and the club remains.

“We can’t cry about someone who didn’t want to be here,” Isco put so eloquently during the week.

The future of head coach Julen Lopetegui is up in the air just 14 games into his reign but this could be the week to turn it all around.

After four without a win, Madrid saw off Viktoria Plžen in the Champions League in midweek and Messi’s injury means they couldn’t choose a better time to head to Camp Nou. A win would put Madrid just a point behind Barcelona and transform the mood around the club.

Though they’ve not looked sharp lately, Lopetegui’s side have only conceded nine LaLiga goals to Barcelona’s 11 this season. There’s a lot to be done but there is, by no means, a need for the full-blown restoration some would have you believe right now. They’re still Real Madrid, after all.

And they come up against a Barcelona side that looks, at times, a bit confused. Trapped between their identity of possession football and Ernesto Valverde’s preference for a compact pressing unit, Barcelona’s results are good but the process is muddled.

Xavi and Andrés Iniesta, the team’s guides from midfield, have departed. Dani Alves, who so often injected the side with pace and directness, is gone. Barcelona are failing to regularly bring players through to carry on the traditions the club holds so dearly.

Gerard Piqué is 31, the same age as Lionel Messi. Sergio Busquets is 30. Barcelona won the double last season but many supporters are disatisifed with Valverde’s style and the fact their club have not gone beyond the Champions League quarter-finals since winning the competition in 2015.

And now Messi is injured.

The little Argentine may be into his 30s now but he is showing no signs of slowing down.

Of Barcelona’s 35 goals this season, Messi has scored 12 – nobody else has netted more than four – and assisted another six.

The great Pep Guardiola Barcelona side was the best in the world and set Messi a platform to deliver from, forged the path for him to become the best player in the world. Nowadays, Barcelona are a little directionless and only come close to the same peaks when their captain drags them there himself.

With his arm in a sling, he won’t be dragging anything anywhere for a little while.

With Messi ruled out, it could be advantage Madrid. Barcelona clearly don’t have anyone to replace their star man like-for-like and his absence will only encourage Marcelo, one of Madrid’s true attacking instigators, to roam forward from left-back.

Rather than having Ronaldo’s absence harm them, it could be the lack of Messi that gives Madrid the chance to turn this game – and their season – on its head.

The first El Clásico without Ronaldo and Messi since 2007 is a watershed moment. Conspicuous by their absence, El Clásico can finally be about Real Madrid and Barcelona again. The two have defined an era where fans have become obsessed with individuals rather than teams but El Clásico may now have to overcome that trend to stand the test of time.

No individual can fill the void – the personality, the talent, the history, nor the impact – left by arguably the two greatest players the sport has ever seen. But the two biggest clubs in world football can.

The end of an era or the start of a new one? As football becomes more and more about individuals, Barcelona v Real Madrid can take the reigns from its two main protagonists to reassume its role as the biggest and most important rivalry in world football.