A new 'Clásico' takes place this weekend: Real Madrid tries to end Barcelona's dominance of women's football

The first 'Clásico' of the season, a match between Real Madrid and FC Barcelona, ended in an outstanding defeat for Madrid at their Santiago Bernabéu stadium last month. The next Clásico is around the corner, this one for the LigaF, the Women's first division of football.

This Saturday, November 16 at 20 PM CET (on DAZN), Barcelona will travel to Valdebebas, in Madrid. Barcelona is leader in the LigaF 5 points ahead of Madrid, but Madrid has played one game less, cancelled due to Valencia's floods. In the hypothetical case that Madrid wins that postponed match, and beats Barcelona tomorrow, they would claim the top spot in the League, which is an unusual thing to happen.

Real Madrid women's squad (officially founded in 2020 after they bought CD Tacon) has never won or even tied a match with FC Barcelona, and in most cases they have lost by a large margin.

The problem with Spanish Women's Football: nobody can beat Barcelona

The distance between Barcelona and Madrid (or any other team) is simply too large, something Barça players like Aitana Bonmatí are starting to resent, wishing for a more competitive League that would draw larger attention and media coverage to the sport.

Women's football in Spain is dominated by Barcelona, the large club that took the sport most seriously. The Catalan team has won LigaF five times in a row (from 2020 to 2024), came in second four consecutive times (from 2016 to 2019) and before that won another four times in a row (from 2012 to 2015).

Barcelona is also undoubtedly Europe's top team, having either won or reached the Champions League final in five of the last six editions.

However, in the interviews before the match, Barcelona players are admitting Real Madrid has reinforced a lot last summer and is showing a really high level this year. An outstanding fact is that both teams will play after hammering 7-0 their European rivals in Champions League. Barcelona 7-0 against Sankt Pölten, Madrid 7-0 against Twente. Real Madrid is stronger now and is perhaps the only Spanish club with the resources to equal Barça, but are they there yet?