Ranking the El Clasico debutants
Debutants Luis Suarez and James Rodriguez during Real Madrid vs BarcelonaIt has been described as the biggest game of club football on the planet. Many have also stated that the world stops for 90 minutes when Real Madrid play Barcelona. Indeed, El Clasico has no equals when it comes to club football rivalry. And to be a part of this historic fixture is always what plenty of professional footballers dream of since the day they start kicking the ball.However, only a few get to live that reality of bearing the Spanish capital club’s crest or the revolutionary Catalan colors. And on October 26, six of them included themselves into the pantheon of legendary names like Raul, Di Stefano, Zarra, Cryuff, Ronaldino, Zidane and more. James Rodriguez, Toni Kroos debuted for the Blancos while Barca had four debutants in the form of Luis Suarez, Ivan Rakitic, Jeremy Mathieu and Claudio Bravo.On arguably the biggest games of their careers, were they instrumental for their sides? We take a look
#6 Claudio Bravo
Rating – 3/10
Claudio Bravo entered the Santiago Bernabeu with a perfect record as the new shot stopper of Barcelona. The former Real Sociedad goalkeeper set a club record and went on for 8 games without conceding a goal. With a game of this magnitude in front of him, Cules were optimistic that the Chilean would be able to stop the dynamic attack of Real Madrid.
However, the record concluded in the first half itself after Cristiano Ronaldo converted from the penalty spot to put Real on level terms, thus ending Bravo’s record in the 754th minute. In the second half Bravo ended up conceding three times as Barca were beaten convincingly by their nemesis. It was a debut to forget for the 31-year-old.