When Raul ended Madrid’s humiliation, silenced Nou Camp

CAIRO – 3 January 2018: There was a time in history when Real Madrid fans stopped dreaming of achieving victory over their rivals, Barcelona, at their castle, Nou Camp, and they only wanted to see their players celebrating a goal in front of Barcelona’s stands.

The crisis started in January 1994 when Barcelona’s dream team in the 1990s humiliated Real Madrid in the presence of their big names, Manuel Sanchís, Rafael Martín Vázquez and Emilio Butragueño, defeating them 5-0. This result was a start to a disastrous run for “Los Blancos”.

Romario scored a hat trick againtst Real Madrid at 5-0 game in 1994, Photo courtsey of Barcelona official website

However, Real Madrid took their revenge a year later, defeating Barcelona in Madrid 5-0, their first visit to Nou Camp after the 5-0 game ended with a 1-0 victory for the hosts.

Barcelona continued their amazing run of defeating their rivals without conceding a single goal for five years. Madrid lost six consecutive games, conceding 16 goals without scoring any, but in October 1999, everything changed when a young talent from Madrid’s suburbs named Raul Gonzalez decided to regain their pride.

Raul Gonzalez led Real Madrid’s young squad against Barcelona masters Patrick Kluivert, Rivaldo Ferreira, Pep Guardiola and Luis Figo.

The game started with the dominance of the Barcelona players, who had many chances to open the score, but the surprise came from Raul, who scored Real Madrid’s first goal at Nou Camp in five years through a header, but Rivaldo equalized only a minute later.

The Catalan’s vice captain, Figo, scored their second goal in the game in the second half. While Real Madrid fans were ready to leave the stadium with 5 minutes left before the final whistle, Raul changed their plans, scoring the equalizer and celebrating with the silence sign towards Barcelona stands.

From this moment, Raul turned from a young striker to a big star for Real Madrid fans.