EL CLASICO
El Clásico set for December 3-4 and April 22-23 (2017)
It's official, Real Madrid and FC Barcelona will meet each other in global football's biggest game on the weekends of December 3/4 (2016) and April 22/23 (2017).
The 2016/17 LaLiga fixtures were drawn this morning at the RFEF (Spanish FA) headquarters in Las Rozas (Madrid).
The biggest game in world football: Real Madrid v Barcelona
As is the case every year all eyes were on the dates for the biggest game in world football: El Clásico when old foes Real Madrid and FC Barcelona come head to head.
First Clásico in December
Fans will have to wait until the weekend of December 3/4 for the first bout, with the Camp Nou be the setting for the first Clásico of the new campaign. The return fixture at the Bernabéu will be on April 22-23, meaning it will form part of LaLiga run in and could be decisive in the race for the title.
Last season the Camp Nou match was played second, on 2 April 2016, with Real Madrid snatching a 1-2 win after Gerard Pîque had put the home side ahead and it looked like the Catalan side were cruising to a comfortable three points with Madrid reduced to 10 men after Sergio Ramos' dismissal. Madrid (by then under the tutorship of Zidane) fought back though and strikes from Benzema and Karim Benzema saw Barcelona's 39 unbeaten run come to an end.
It was a different story when both sides met at the Santiago Bernabeu earlier in the 2015/16 campaign as Barcelona demolished Real Madrid 0-4 with a rampant Catalan side crushing Rafa Benitez's side with goals from Suarez(2), Neymar and Andres Iniesta.