Primera Liga: Sid Lowe on why tonight's clash of La Liga's biggest clubs represents Spanish football's best opportunity for redemption in the eyes of Europe. Spain is used to being the focus of attention when Barcelona face Real Madrid. And yet, while Ronaldo rightly concluded it was the most watched club match in the world yesterday, this time will be different.
Tonight's clash at the Camp Nou will be even more closely watched than usual, but it was not supposed to be this way: Wednesday's international "friendly" against England has shifted the focus from the beautiful to the bestial in the Spanish game.
The elastic genius of Ronaldinho, the thunderous charge of Ronaldo and the smooth intelligence of Xavi Hernandez takes on another dimension this evening. It is not solely about them winning the match; it is about Spain winning back friends.
Tonight is a first opportunity for the Spanish to prove they are not represented by the monkey chants of Wednesday night, to repair their damaged reputation - something that was reflected in the fact the Spanish Football Federation has finally apologised. The FA yesterday revealed it had received a letter from its Spanish counterparts.
"Their letter apologised for the racist behaviour directed by groups of fans at England under-21 and senior players on Tuesday and Wednesday, in particular Ashley Cole, Shaun Wright-Phillips and Jermain Defoe," said an FA statement.
That letter was a key first step. Winning back friends could hardly be more important right now; the timing of the attacks on England's black players could hardly have been worse.
On Wednesday morning Alberto Ruiz-Gallardon, president of the Comunidad de Madrid, had proclaimed the city to be "open, transparent and (ready) to transmit the dream that feeds the eternal flame of a true passion for sport, for a meeting of peoples and peaceful co-existence".
He was, of course, talking of the city's Olympic bid but within hours his words were given a rather hollow ring, drowned out in a stadium of racist chants.
Indeed, fears over the effect that racist chants may have on Madrid's bid for the 2012 Olympics have played their part in the Spanish federation's apology. For rarely has Spain been the focus of such reprobation, of such intense and negative media interest.
As Alfredo Relano, the editor of the Madrid-based sports daily As and one of the few commentators to criticise Spain's coach Luis Aragones when he referred to Thierry Henry as a "black shit" over a month ago, put it: "Suddenly, everyone's pointing at us. Not for our football, but because they think we are racists."
Rarely, too, has a country been forced into such a significant shift in attitude, publicly at least. They have been shocked by the breadth and feeling of the condemnation of Wednesday night's racist chanting and by the realisation that those criticising them were not just "trouble-seeking" British journalists but politicians of all colours, figures from the football world and many more from within their own borders.
No longer prepared to fight against the tide, the press has turned. Some, such as the liberal daily El Pais, already saw things from the other side, but yesterday the change was complete: Spain has reflected and turned attention in on itself and on its national team coach, El Mundo describing Aragones as "stoking the fires".
Nowhere was the shift more apparent than in the country's best-selling newspaper, the sports daily Marca. Its front page yesterday declared "Football cannot consent a single racist act: colour should not be allowed to matter" over a photo of Samuel Eto'o turned white and Zinedine Zidane black.
An editorial entitled "Football without colours" held up the former Real Madrid manager Guus Hiddink as an example to follow: Hiddink had refused to bring out his Valencia side until racist banners were removed from Mestalla in March 1992.
And while the editorial justifiably questioned the moral right of the English to hand out lessons, it sought no excuses: "It is only the colour of the shirt that counts," it said before concluding, "if the English players had walked off we would have understood that. There is no way to justify what happened."
But while their was no justification of the events by the Spanish federation, its behaviour, in recent days and previously, indicated that there was tolerance towards such racism.
When Aragones first harangued Jose Antonio Reyes in the Henry incident, the Spanish federation president, Angel Maria Villar, defended him, claiming his words were taken out of context.
And, rather than apologising, Aragones reacted in pugnacious style. The federation did not call him to attention.
Why not? Because they did not seriously consider it an issue. Nor, in truth, did most of the press. Those who were irritated were short-circuited: Aragones counts some of the Spanish media's heaviest heavyweights, such as Antena 3's JJ Santos, among his best friends. As one (black) commentator, Andres Montes, put it yesterday: "We journalists have always been obliged to 'contextualize' what Luis says, to try to find a way of justifying his words, of softening what he has said and making sure he comes up smelling of roses."
Wednesday changed matters and the press is abandoning the national coach. Before it didn't matter: "Luis scandalises England" ran one headline; he hadn't scandalised Spain. They were on his side: indeed, the extent of the monkey chants on Wednesday night was in part a declaration of support for Aragones against the English, encouraged by the Spanish press.
Worse was to come after the match when Fernando Garrido, the director of external relations, whose job it is to deal with the press, refused to condemn the chants. Instead, he made another attack on the English press.
As Begona Sanchez, a spokeswoman for the anti-racist group SOS, claimed: "The federation talks of 'provocation' instead of dealing with the matter. By acting in this way, the controversy continues and the RFEF legitimises racist behaviour."
There is some realisation of that now. It may be belated but some good may yet come of this.
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