The followers responded, elevating their arms, too, and giving the now memorable five-finger gesture.
Football journalist Graham Hunter, creator of the award-winning “Barca: The Making of the Greatest Team in the World,” a ebook that was later used as a foundation for the feature-length documentary “Take the Ball Pass the Ball,” remembers being in awe of not solely the scoreline, however the method of the victory.
“What hit me was a realization that Real Madrid, even till the primary aim, could not sustain with the tempo of soccer. It wasn’t concerning the operating, I’ve not often seen the ball fizz precisely, cleverly from foot to foot prefer it did that evening.”
Barca opened the scoring during that November 29th match in less than 10 minutes. Andres Iniesta threaded a pass to an unmarked Xavi Hernandez, who caught the ball on his heel and then chipped it over Iker Casillas in goal.
The second came after more than a minute of possession and was finished by Pedro. Seventeen minutes gone and Barca was 2-0 up.
Then came the third, a perfect through ball from Lionel Messi to David Villa, and within two minutes the fourth. In the 91st minute, Barcelona made it five and, with it, a record-equaling scoreline — the ‘manita,’ Barcelona’s biggest winning margin over Real Madrid since 1994, also a 5-0 victory, inflicted by a Johann Cruyff side packed with worldly talents such as Romario, Hristov Stoichkov and Pep Guardiola.
There was still time for Real defender Sergio Ramos to be sent off seconds after the final restart after he hacked at Messi in frustration. It was the first red card of Ramos’ career against Barcelona, but it has since become somewhat of a tradition as he’s earned another four in the intervening years.
Real Madrid didn’t play badly, the team from the capital was just overwhelmed by a side at the peak of its powers.
Books have been written about the 18-day period during April and May of the 2010-11 season in which the sides met four times. There is a case to be made that, despite the quality of Barcelona’s performance in the November El Clasico, it is overshadowed by the importance of this quartet of clashes later that season, a time of unparalleled intensity between the sides.
The ‘special one’
Nevertheless, that November match in 2010 was Mourinho’s first El Clasico in charge of Real Madrid, and the first time he had faced Barcelona since his Inter Milan side defeated Guardiola’s side in the semi-finals of the Champions League earlier that year.
Infamously, having knocked out Barca, Mourinho ran across the Camp Nou pitch celebrating, his finger pointing to the Nerazzuri faithful. Barcelona goalkeeper Victor Valdes had pleaded with him to stop, but he refused.
Much hyperbole surrounded Mourinho’s subsequent move to Madrid that summer. The Portuguese was billed as the man to end Barcelona’s dominance, and some Barcelona players were irritated by the Spanish press’ obsession with his arrival.
Hunter had adopted a united Spanish nationwide workforce in South Africa in 2010 because the nation received its first World Cup. A few months later, he interviewed Pique, who was indignant.
“Coming away from a unified triumph the place a clutch of Madrid gamers and an equally huge clutch, possibly barely larger clutch, of Barcelona gamers or ex-Barcelona gamers, had tramped throughout South Africa [with] whole unity,” he says. “And Gerard [Pique’s] level was that it p****d them off. Every press convention was Mourinho, Mourinho, Mourinho, Mourinho.
“It was getting under their skin a little bit, simply: ‘Why is the media more fascinated with Jose Mourinho than they are with [us]? We’ve returned to the training ground now as the dominant Spanish side at the moment, and we’ve returned as World Cup winners. And yet it’s the fabled one, it’s the man who will bring Real Madrid all they desire.'”
When Mourinho lastly introduced Real to the Camp Nou later that yr, Barcelona gave him the most effective Catalan welcome it might.
Real tried to go toe-to-toe with Barcelona, however failed drastically. Usually an animated determine on the touchline, Mourinho as a substitute sat helplessly on the bench because the latter three objectives went in.
Barcelona followers chanted, “Come out of the dugout! Jose, come out of the dugout!” His grand Clasico debut had been ruined.
The price of success
When it’s stated Barcelona received that match enjoying “their way,” it isn’t simply concerning the model of play, it is about membership tradition, too, and central to that’s growing gamers by means of the membership academy, La Masia.
Real’s workforce price €300m ($357.3m), rising to €324m ($385.8m) with substitutes. Ronaldo alone had price greater than Barca’s workforce.
That yr, the three up for the Ballon d’Or award for the world’s finest footballer had been Lionel Messi, Xavi and Iniesta; three Barcelona gamers who had graduated from La Masia.
At the time, the then Barcelona president Joan Laporta famously made a thinly-veiled jab at Real, saying: “We create Ballon d’Ors, others buy them.”
In distinction to the workforce of November 2010, Barcelona used solely 4 La Masia graduates throughout that October sport with the assembled workforce, together with substitutes, coming at a value of €581.9m ($694.2m).
More was spent on the high-profile particular person transfers of Philippe Coutinho, Antoine Griezmann and Ousmane Dembele than on your entire workforce of the 2010 classic. Three of the highest six costliest transfers transfers of all time at the moment are Barcelona signings.
“I feel that Barca solely needs to be a business and enterprise membership … purchase and promote gamers. When you do this, you lose your id.”
Striving for a future in the past
The political race to search out his successor started instantly.
“Xavi can be a Barcelona coach it doesn’t matter what,” he told CNN. “Maybe quickly, possibly in a couple of years. But he can be, it is only a matter of time.
“He’s getting ready, coaching other other leagues or the other players to learn because he just started in this profession and he’ll be fantastic. I have no doubts about it.”
Xavi is at present plying his commerce in Qatar. Having left for Al Sadd in 2015, he retired from enjoying and instantly took over as supervisor.
In his first season in cost, Xavi secured victory within the Qatari Super Cup, Qatar Cup and Qatari Stars Cup, whereas additionally ending third within the Qatari Stars League.
This season, which solely started in September, the membership sits first and is undefeated with 5 wins and one draw.
In the meantime, it’s one other former nice, Ronald Koeman, who has been charged with restoring Barcelona to the higher echelons of La Liga and European soccer, however early outcomes recommend the Dutchman has a lot work to do.
Though Barca has received all 4 of its Champions League group video games this season, the workforce is at present 13th in La Liga, with 11 factors from eight video games, having received solely one in every of its final 5.
Fourth within the league, Real Madrid’s kind has not been significantly better. But a win towards Inter Milan on Wednesday offers the workforce and its supervisor Zinedine Zidane respiratory area and, extra importantly, qualification to the Champions League knockout phases.
A decade on from that by no means to be forgotten November evening, a lot has modified for each groups.
