Man, let me tell you, this project was supposed to be a breeze. A total piece of cake. Someone on a forum—doesn’t matter who—started flapping their gums about how totally dominant Real Madrid has been over Barcelona in the last decade. I told him he was talking nonsense, but then he threw some half-baked stats at me.
I realized arguing with memory is pointless. If you want to shut someone up, you gotta bring the receipts. The full, verified history. So I decided right then and there: I was going to pull every single score from the last 30 official El Clásico matches. Just the cold, hard data. How hard could that be? Famous teams, famous rivalry. Data should be everywhere, right?
The Start: Diving into the Swamp
I jumped straight onto Google, thinking I’d find one pristine list, click, copy, and be done in 15 minutes. Holy smokes, I was wrong. The first six results gave me six different lists. Why? Because everybody defines “last 30” differently.
Some lists skip the Supercopa matches. Some count that weird friendly they played in the States two years ago. Some get the chronological order totally messed up when they switch between La Liga and Copa del Rey fixtures. I quickly realized this wasn’t a retrieval job; it was a verification and curation job.
I cracked open a massive spreadsheet—a boring, empty Excel sheet—and started building my own database from scratch. I needed anchors. I focused on identifying the dates of the matches, starting from the most recent fixture and working backwards to ensure I hit exactly 30 official, competitive games. No friendlies, no exhibition games, just the ones that meant something.
This is where the real work started. I’d find a list, then I’d cross-reference the date and result with a completely different source—usually the official league historical data, which is always dry as dust but usually reliable. Then I’d check a third source, maybe ESPN’s archives or a reliable fan wiki just to be absolutely sure the goals were attributed correctly. Trust me, finding the accurate score of a random Copa del Rey quarterfinal from 2011 takes more digging than you’d think.
I thought the major league matches would be easy, but even those are sometimes fudged depending on which archive site you use. For example, some sites just list the score, but for my own sanity, I needed to know the venue and the competition phase. I spent the whole morning just untangling the threads of three separate seasons where they played each other six times each. Absolute madness.
The Unexpected Mess and The Outcome
The hardest part wasn’t the goals or the dates, it was the sheer mental effort of ensuring chronological integrity. I had to manually compare match ID numbers between different historical databases, like tracking down a specific lost parcel through a terrible postal system. I had to keep asking myself: Is this Match 17 or Match 18? Did they play twice in the Supercopa before this league match, or just once?
What I found out was that many of the published lists out there? They’re lazy. They miss the crucial early fixtures or they double-count fixtures played very close together. I practically had to become a data forensics expert for old Spanish soccer games. But finally, after grinding through about five hours of cross-referencing, I had my definitive 30-game history, laid out perfectly in reverse chronological order.
The final tally was actually pretty fascinating. Everyone argues about who’s “winning” the rivalry right now, but when you look at the raw data, the sheer number of matches that ended with a narrow one-goal margin was astonishing. It really highlighted how tight this rivalry is, despite what the loud mouths online might tell you.
Here’s what my hard work yielded. I’m just going to list the outcomes for you. The victory count is based on the 30 most recent official competitive fixtures, starting today and going backwards.
- Real Madrid Wins: 16
- Barcelona Wins: 10
- Draws: 4
Just looking at those numbers, Real Madrid has definitely had the edge recently. But diving into the actual score lines gives you the texture. For instance, digging up the exact 5-0 and 5-1 results really reminded me how often these games are blowouts, not just tight contests.
Why Did I Bother?
Honestly? Because I hate bad data. And I hate people arguing based on feelings instead of facts. I started this just to prove a point to some anonymous internet guy, but I ended up with a far better appreciation for just how volatile and intense this specific thirty-game stretch has been. It wasn’t about the final score; it was about the process of forcing the historical record to speak clearly.
Next time someone tells you something is “easy to look up,” remember this. Even the simplest data retrieval tasks require serious verification if you want the truth. My spreadsheet is now bulletproof, though, and that forum guy? He hasn’t replied since I dropped the verified list on him. Victory feels good, especially when you had to manually confirm twenty-six individual goal scorers just to make sure the score lines were correct.
So yeah, I pulled the plug on the last 30 games. It took a whole afternoon, but now I know exactly what happened, and I don’t need to trust any biased website or loudmouth on the internet. That’s the power of digging deep.