El Clasico returns with Barcelona and Real Madrid in action tonight at Camp Nou, with tensions high before the game.
Chanting "Independence" and "Free political prisoners", several thousand Catalan protesters gathered near the stadium on Wednesday hours before kick-off.
Despite a heavy police presence, some of them blocked a major avenue near Camp Nou, disrupting traffic.
El Clasico had initially been scheduled to occur two months ago. However, it was postponed on security concerns due to unrest in the wealthy northeastern region after Spain's Supreme Court in October sentenced nine Catalan separatist leaders to up to 13 years in prison.
Wednesday's protest was called by secretive Catalan protest group Democratic Tsunami, which says it favours peaceful civic disobedience and whose main goals are to get Spain to negotiate on Catalonia's right to self-determination and to achieve freedom for the jailed separatists.
Many protesters carried banners that read "Spain, sit and talk" and the organisation said on Twitter it would distribute 100,000 of those banners to the people attending the game. It also told them to bring inflatable balls and to write on them a "message for the world".
On the pitch, Lionel Messi started as usual for Barca - and there was also a start for Gareth Bale despite his future at Real looking uncertain.
Scroll through the gallery above for all the best photos and highlights from Camp Nou.
Additional reporting by Reuters.
