It's the biggest there is, Becks

They build up to this fixture for weeks, on television and in the papers, even though there are other games beforehand. It's just something else. And the feeling in the dressing room is so different.

Nothing you've experienced quite prepares you for involvement in what the fans call a 'derby' but which, in effect, is nothing of the sort because the cities are about 370 miles apart. You can't make a comparison with Everton-Liverpool derbies or the north London matches I played for Spurs against Arsenal, where you have two teams from the same city and a split crowd. They call it a 'derby' because it's simply the biggest game in the country.

There's far more of a political aspect to the games than anywhere else you could play. It dates back to the Franco days. Madrid were seen as being very much Franco's side representing Castilian Spain, whereas Barcelona was the seat of the Catalans.

Speaking the Catalan language was banned under Franco but they would use it inside their own football stadium and the team became their symbol against the rest of Spain. That has changed now, of course. Things are different but Madrid is still regarded with some hostility.

JOHN TOSHACK

Toshack was appointed coach of Real Madrid in 1989. He went on to win the title that year but was sacked in November 1990. A second spell in charge in 1999 was even briefer, from February to November. He never recorded a win as Real boss in the Nou Camp.

I have been involved in countlessderbies, from all the buildup-when Liverpool face Everton to having the gates locked four hours before kick- off for Galatasaray against Besiktas and seeing 120,000 people crammed in to watch Sporting Lisbon against Benfica.

But there's absolutely no question that Barcelona against Real is the biggest, most intense and most ferocious club fixture in the world. It's more than a football match. It's a clash of traditions and cultures.

All the Catalan people's pent-up feelings come pouring out when they see the white shirts on their pitch. Barcelona supporters are notorious for getting on their team's backs, but it never happens against Real. Their fans know it can have a negative effect and won't risk anything which might jeopardise their chances. They will forgive their players anything as long as they beat Real.

I remember that creating quite an unhealthy atmosphere when I went there with Real. You could almost feel the hostility and I could sense the nerves among the players. Barcelona could have lost their previous eight games and been slaughtered by fans and the Press but you would still go into that stadium knowing that all 120,000 inside would give everything to help their team stuff you out of sight.

It definitely affected one or two of my players. You're not talking about people rushing to the toilet or being sick with nerves, and I'm not prepared to name names, but one or two froze on the night.

They didn't do themselves justice and we lost 3-1. The game was sandwiched between the two legs of a European Cup defeat by AC Milan and I was suddenly under real pressure.

It was the same from the people in charge. No-one said anything, but they didn't need to. The looks were enough. It can be the loneliest job in the world at Real Madrid, and it felt that way for a while afterwards. Even walking down the street, I'd get a look from people as if I'd committed a murder or something. That one result can make you or break you as a manager, and while I wish Carlos Queiroz all the best, he should be mindful of what happened to me. The papers were full of whether I was the man for the job and it was touch and go for a while.

It won't be easy for David Beckham but it's all about remembering how good you are and having the temperament to handle the occasion, and there's no better example than Raul.

The last time I took Real to the Nou Camp, I decided to go with Nicolas Anelka, one of my signings, and Fernando Morientes up front, with Raul just behind.

It was adventurous, to say the least, and I had some reservations until I ran it by Raul the day before the game. He said: 'Great. Let's go for it and stick it to them.'

That was just the approach we needed and he not only scored both our goals in a 2-2 draw but ran to the most vocal Barcelona fans after the second one with his finger to his lips, as if to say: 'That shut you up.'

That 2-2 draw was the first time we'd taken a point from the Nou Camp in something like seven years. We flew straight back to Madrid and entered the concourse at 1.30 in the morning to be greeted by hundreds of fans, and even the club president, cheering us and waving banners. You would have thought we had just won the European Cup rather than simply drawn a league game.

STEVE ARCHIBALD

Archibald joined Barcelona from Tottenham for £1.5m in August 1984. He was signed by Terry Venables and won the title in his first season. He spent four years with the club before he was sold to Espanyol by Johan Cruyff.

My first derby was in the Bernabeu, the opening game of the season. It was probably as important as any match I played in. We had a new manager in Terry Venables, it was my first league match and there was a new philosophy at Barcelona. That day we beat Real Madrid 3-0 on their own turf and it gave us a great start to the season. When people saw that they actually started to believe we could win the league, because Real Madrid are Real Madrid.

The return fixture in the Nou Camp ended as a 2- 2 draw. I remember I had a 'goal' chalked off for offside, which was a wrong decision. It would have been the winner.

Afterwards the referee, Ramos Marcos, who now works with Michael Robinson on a TV football show, publicly apologised because he'd seen on television that he was wrong. He was a famous referee at that time, always very arrogant on the pitch, and it was said that he was against us. I don't know if that was the case but he certainly chalked that goal off which would have won the game for us.

SIR BOBBY ROBSON

Robson was appointed coach of Barcelona in 1996. He kept the job for just a year, but in his time played Real Madrid three times, winning twice.

I've been around a fair bit and I can tell you there is no bigger game at club level than this.

It's not just a football match, it's a clash of cultures that carries a deep- seated hatred that goes beyond the rivalries that separate supporters of teams in the north-east, Manchester, Liverpool, London ... even Glasgow.

It was one of my most satisfying memories as a manager to beat Real Madrid twice at the Nou Camp in the one season I was in charge. I don't think I've experienced tension like it before the first of these games.

It will be strange watching Saturday's game with the likes of Ronaldo and Luis Figo playing for Real because I had them both at Barca.

So many people will pack themselves into the Nou Camp and the atmosphere will be one of pure hostility.

It's also a match between teams who, over the years, have boasted some of the best players in the world. This one will be no different. It's a magnificent, unforgettable spectacle, full of noisy passion and incredible colour.

But the players not only have to rely on their ability, they also have to be able to cope with such a white-hot atmosphere.

TERRY VENABLES

Venables joined Barcelona as coach in 1984. He spent two seasons at the Nou Camp, winning the league in his first and getting to the final of the European Cup in his second.

There was much nudging, winking and Miguel-taking in Spanish, which he did not yet understand, when Terry Venables made his unexpected move to Barcelona. To say they knew precious little about Venables in Spain was an understatement.

Few Catalans or Madrilenos had even heard of Crystal Palace or Queens Park Rangers, the lesser London clubs upon whom he had been cutting his managerial teeth.

'Where did they find this Englishman?' asked a banner front page headline in Madrid's leading sports daily. 'On a holiday beach in Majorca?'

Among the superstar players, there was outspoken resentment of the intensified training regime imposed by Venables and the then novel style of play on which he was insisting.

'Pressing?' complained one in a pre- season interview about the system of the whole team grafting to close down opponents so as to create a platform for their skill. 'I thought pressing was the job of the laundry maid.'

Very funny. Then the Spanish football federation announced the opening fixtures for the new season, starting with Real Madrid v Barcelona.

No joke, that. 'Rightly or wrongly,' said Venables, 'I couldn't help feeling they were trying to kill me off before I got started.'

To the Bernabeu, that cauldron into which Venables sent his doubting Antonios with this one request: 'Give me this one chance. Do it my way tonight.'

Ninety minutes later, mighty Real had been pressed to death, the great stadium silenced by this scoreline: Real 0 Barcelona 3.

There was no laughing in Madrid's Plaza Mayor that night, only on the team plane home to Barcelona.

There, tens of thousands of astonished but delighted converts were flocking out to the airport to hail the new entrenador Ingles and his players, several of whom had spent the flight apologising to Venables and pledging themselves to his revolution.

Suddenly, it was no longer Terry Who? El Tel had arrived, with a vengeance.

STEVE McMANAMAN

McManaman joined Real Madrid in 1999 on a free transfer from Liverpool. He left Real to join Manchester City in the summer.

Having only played 10 minutes as a substitute, McManaman's first experience of a meeting between Spain's greatest rivals was largely forgettable - though Real did win 3-0 at the Bernabeu.

His second encounter - eight months later - was memorable, however, because it marked Luis Figo's return to the Nou Camp. It was October 2001 and the man, previously the hero of Barca, was parading in front of the fans who once adored him wearing Real's hated white shirt.

' Luis was subjected to a venomous personal attack. It was like nothing I had ever seen,' McManaman recalled. 'He was abused every step he took, from the moment he stepped off the plane to the moment he got back on it again. I sat next to him on the plane but there was no way I was going to do that on the bus! We were being pelted with all sorts from the roadside. On the pitch he had missiles and taunts aimed at him. It was impossible to concentrate. He was pelted with bottles, golf balls, bottle tops - even the head of a suckling pig. He wasn't even allowed to take corners as he was too near the crowd! Eventually the referee had to order both sets of players off until things calmed down. They didn't, and it was a terrible game of football. It really was vile. And we lost 2-0.

'Spanish domestic clashes are the most hostile games I've experienced. The windows of our team coach would routinely be smashed by bricks on every trip to Barcelona. That was truly frightening. On the short trip from the hotel to the Nou Camp we'd all brace ourselves and cower down on the floor as the driver put his foot down and hurtled the bus through the particular street where you knew the missiles would start raining through the windows.

'We used to stay in the centre of the city with an army of security. Armoured police vans surrounded our bus for the trip to the stadium. One year, police carrying guns ran alongside when we slowed in traffic. It was unreal. You drive down a tunnel and on either side of the road fans are barricaded off.

We used to draw the curtains and you just heard 'boom, boom, boom' as everything was hurled at the windows. Several got broken. As much as you didn't want it, it was exciting for the players in that you got unbelievably wound up for the match.'

WORDS BY JEFF POWELL, STEVE CURRY, SIMON CASS, JOHN EDWARDS AND IAN LADYMAN.