This is how referees remember their 'Clasicos'

It is not easy refereeing a match between Barcelona and Real Madrid. The tension of either fighting for the title or even just wanting to beat your biggest rival is always present. Sometimes, off the field issues occurs. 

Some of the referees in charge talked to 'Marca'. Urizar Azpitarte still recalls the game Stoichkov stepped on him. That is when a nice friendship began. "He invited to me to Sofia and he apologised to me in front of many people. He even gave me the boots he stamped on me with as a present!," he recalled. 

Azpitarte took charge of 12 Clasicos and he even had to slap one of his assistants in one of them. "He later thanked me for that slap," the ex-referee confessed, who also sent off Schuster the day he returned to the Camp Nou after signing for Real Madrid. 

Diaz Vega ended up refereeing nine games between Barca and Real Madrid. He was part of one of the most famous images in Clasico history when Raul ordered the Camp Nou crowd to be quiet. "Of course I remember it! And I would once again not book him for it!"

But without doubt, one of the most famous games was when two people chained themselves to the post. Alfonso Perez Burrull spoke to 'AS' about that encounter in 2002. There were anti-globalisation protests in Barcelona and it was also complex. Suddenly Puyol came up to me to let me know that two people had chained themselves to the goal and I couldn't believe it. I didn't know what he was telling me, but when I turned, I had to stop the game because it was true, two guys had chained themselves to the upright," he recalled.