El Clasico should guarantee football fireworks. This time, it fizzled

Neither Real Madrid nor Barcelona were willing to take a risk, writes Tom Kershaw – even the great Lionel Messi faded into the periphery

Messi looks dejected during his Barcelona side's defeat (EPA)

Hours before El Clasico kicked off on Sunday evening, hordes of fans had flocked, in the pouring rain, to the Santiago Bernabeu stadium. The atmosphere was febrile, a faint banging of drums lingering constantly in the background.

Despite a recent plateau in form, most wouldn’t hesitate to call Real Madrid vs Barcelona – a decades-long rivalry, underwritten by a deep political division, between Spain’s two sporting superpowers – the greatest club game football has to offer.

Even as a journalist, it’s impossible not to get swept up in such an occasion. After all, they offer the kinds of moments that made us want to be sports journalists in the first place. Sat high above it all, it would be fair to say there were few fireworks on the pitch, but many on the stands. Madrid’s “white wall”, situated behind the goal in the south stand, sang throughout the 90 minutes.