Historic Great Match Thrills Fans and Lights Up Facebook – El Clásico Recap
Ronaldo star power showed as he edged Messi on the field during the El Clasico but it was Barcelona who grabbed the points in a 2-1 win over Real Madrid. This great match was also captured in social media as the world came together to share passions for the great game of soccer. Here is what happened on Facebook.
Following last night’s exhilarating face-off between Real Madrid and Barcelona in El Clasico, Facebook took a look at the numbers to see what had millions of fans buzzing around the world. While Real Madrid was the most talked about team before the infamous match, they were not the victors losing 2-1 to Barcelona.
Globally, 22 million people drove 58 million interactions around El Clasico this year. Cristiano Ronaldo and Leo Messi were the most-buzzed about players while the United States was the country with the highest level of conversation about the match. Messi got an assist for Barcelona’s opening goal scored by Jeremy Mathieu but it was Ronaldo who was fantastic in the first half, scoring the equalizing goal for Real Madrid just had the 30 minute mark.
After great excitement, it was FC Barcelona who extended their lead in La Liga yesterday with their triumphant victory, winning the first Clasico of 2015 against long time rival Real Madrid. Luis Suarez managed to make a strong play to give his Barcelona team the important goal at the right time – the 56th minute. (And, no, he didn’t bite anyone. Perhaps scoring the game winning goal with a tremendous finish distracted Suarez from taking a nip.)
While discovering how fans connect digitally while watching a soccer game is a lot of fun and gives great insight into America’s growing love for the beautiful game, Facebook is a fabulous tool for connecting fans with their favorite soccer stars. Finally, with the joys of social media, fans can even discover what their favorite soccer icons like – for instance, here is the picture Andres Iniesta posted of the amazing mosaic in the stands following Barça’s victory.
This blockbuster match rocked the digital world as well and if you click here, you can see a visualization showing how people shared their soccer passion on Facebook with the new, fancy People Per Minute (PPM) charting the buzz about the match.
Below are some other interesting data points about the game:
Top Social Moments
- Match ends with 2-1 win for FC Barcelona
- First goal for Real Madrid by Ronaldo
- First goal for FC Barcelona by Mathieu
- First half of the match ends
- Second goal for FC Barcelona by Suarez
Top 10 Countries (where level of conversation on Facebook was highest)
- United States
- Mexico
- Brazil
- Indonesia
- Spain
- Turkey
- Colombia
- Argentina
- Guatemala
- Morocco
Top Players:
- Overall: Cristiano Ronaldo
- FC Barcelona: Leo Messi
- Real Madrid: Cristiano Ronaldo
Most talked about player in:
- Spain: Leo Messi
- Italy: Leo Messi
- UK: Cristiano Ronaldo
- France: Cristiano Ronaldo
The El Clasico in October 2014 saw 14 million people driving 31 million interactions. Here are some images from Facebook on the pre-game excitement.
The Facebook El Clásico Starting XI
- Goalkeeper: Iker Casillas
- Defense: Gerard Piqué, Sergio Ramos, Marcelo, Pepe
- Midfielders: Andres Iniesta, James Rodriguez , Gareth Bale
- Forwards: Cristiano Ronaldo, Leo Messi, Neymar Jr.
- Coach: Carlo Ancelotti
Facebook Buzz
Anonymously analyzing all of the El Clásico conversation on Facebook between March 2 and 15, 2015, Facebook determined which teams, players, and managers were the most talked about.
Most talked about team
- Global: Real Madrid
Most engaged/interacted with team (by unique people interacting with content mentioning a team)
- Global: Real Madrid 59%, FC Barcelona 41%
Most talked about player
- Global:
- 1. Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid)
- 2. Lionel Messi (FC Barcelona)
Most talked about manager
- Global: Carlo Ancelotti (Real Madrid)
Top 10 countries discussing El Clásico
- Brazil
- Mexico
- Argentina
- United States
- Indonesia
- Spain
- Colombia
- Chile
- Italy
- Vietnam
Fanbase Real Madrid and Barcelona have a combined Facebook fanbase of 134 million globally, which means one in 10 of all monthly active people on Facebook are fans of either Real Madrid or FC Barcelona’s official pages.
