Barca vs. Real Madrid
Venue: Camp Nou
Kick off: 7:30pm
The 231st El Clasico will take place at Camp Nou on Saturday night (tonight) when Barcelona welcome Real Madrid in the La Liga.
The home side, who are closing on another league crown, will enter the match 10 points clear of third-placed Real Madrid and on the back of a 39-game unbeaten run in all competitions.
Real Madrid have also not won a league match at Camp Nou since April 2012 and Los Blancos will have revenge on their mind having taken a 4-0 thumping in the reverse clash at the Bernabeu earlier this season.
With just eight games left to play in Spain’s top flight, Barcelona currently boast a nine-point lead at the top of the table.
Luis Enrique’s side were held to a 2-2 draw at Villarreal in their last league match before the international break, but that result stretched their unbeaten run in all competitions to 39 matches.
They have not tasted defeat in any match since the start of October and are well on course to challenge for another treble in the final weeks of the campaign.
Thirty La Liga matches have brought 24 wins, while they have only lost on two occasions.
They are the second-highest scorers (86) behind Real Madrid (87) and also have the second-best defensive record (24) behind Atletico (14).
Much of their success has again been down to Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar, but it has been another team effort from the Catalan giants, who have arguably surpassed Pep Guardiola’s famous Barcelona side.
The league leaders have gone 22 league games in a row at Camp Nou without suffering a defeat, recording 20 wins in the process.
They have also lost just one of their last seven at home to Real Madrid in the league and as mentioned, recorded a thumping 4-0 victory when the two sides met at the Bernabeu earlier this season.
While Barcelona are in the hunt for another treble, Real Madrid’s season could well be defined by the Champions League.
An 11th European Cup might well soften the blow of another disappointing league campaign, but the fact that Los Blancos have won just one La Liga crown since the 2007-08 season will be a huge concern to president Florentino Perez.
Real Madrid do have 32 La Liga titles to Barcelona’s 23, but they have had to watch Barcelona and Atletico share the trophy in recent seasons.
Carlo Ancelotti was unable to wrestle the crown from Camp Nou and Zinedine Zidane will surely fail this time around.
It is not as if the Madrid giants have been well off the pace in the league, with only four defeats from their 30 matches bringing them a respectable total of 66 points at this stage of the campaign.
Sevilla, Barcelona, Villarreal and Atletico are the four teams to have beaten Real Madrid in the league this season and they have only won two of their last six with Barcelona in all competitions.
Beating the so-called smaller teams in La Liga has not been a problem for the Madrid giants over the last couple of seasons, but their record against the bigger sides has rightly been called into question.
Saturday will provide the perfect opportunity to save some face.
Barcelona possible starting lineup: Bravo, Alves, Pique, Mascherano, Alba, Busquets, Rakitic, Iniesta, Neymar, Suarez, Messi.
Real Madrid possible starting lineup: Navas, Danilo, Pepe, Ramos, Marcelo, Casemiro, Modric, Kroos, Ronaldo, Benzema, Bale.