Giant tifo, banners: the public at Camp Nou made their demands for independence heard before kick-off and during the clasico between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid, which ended on Wednesday evening with a blank score. A first for this poster since 2002.

At the end of an animated match, dominated largely by the men of Zinedine Zidane, the two tenors of La Liga camp on their positions in the classification, where they are always 1st and 2nd with the same number of points, Barça staying ahead thanks to the goal difference (+2).

At the heart of a relatively open first period, the Merengues failed to open the scoring. Returning from the locker room, the Madrid residents were denied a goal by Gareth Bale (74th) for an offside by Ferland Mendy who was passing, much to the relief of the 100,000 supporters present at the stadium.

Originally scheduled for October 26 as part of the 10th day, the 181st classic in history had been pushed back by the Spanish federation due to mobilizations and violent clashes in Catalonia following the sentencing to heavy prison terms of separatist leaders.

💙❤ FORÇA BARÇA! pic.twitter.com/rVP0Nafdq5

- FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona_es) December 18, 2019

And between the end of the club's anthem and the kick-off of the game, thousands of blue banners were brandished with cries of "Llibertat" (freedom, in Catalan). The match was briefly interrupted in the 55th minute to clear dozens of beach balls thrown on the lawn from the stands, to protest rubber bullets fired by police to quell pro-independence protests.

Outside the stadium, a few skirmishes took place in the evening between demonstrators raising Catalan flags, and the police force carried out a charge to dispel the demonstrators. A container was also caught in the flames, as observed by an AFP journalist.

With AFP

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