Growing up in Ajegunle, when football was the religion and Cristiano Ronaldo was a high priest, Real Madrid and the Santiago Bernabeu was the Cathedral in the eye of us football acolytes. 

You needn’t be a ardent supporter of Los Blancos at the time. No.

The affinity was drawn or borne out of the mutual interest in seeing FC Barcelona go down.

And there was only one plausible reason for that mindset – Barca was the best team in the world and you abhorred how they easily picked teams apart.

There was also the anguish of watching Referees make questionable calls in favor of the Blaugrana.

Notwithstanding, every football mind knew the Catalan side were almost indestructible.

Fast forward to 2017, Saturday 23rd December and El Clasico beckons.

Real Madrid have given hope once again to those who seek Barca’s scalp – right now with Ernesto Valverde’s men unbeaten and top La Liga.

But can Real Madrid, who are only recently turning the corner of a terrible run in the League stop Lionel Messi and his troopers?

Interestingly, the days of hating on Barca are past now and all you really want to see is good football.

So, who wants to see a win at the Bernabeu?

Certainly I do and I want to wish it goes to the way of the home team but, there’s no reason to think Messi won;t break hearts again.