Will the first of four El Clasicos decide the La Liga title?
Will the first of four El Clasicos decide the La Liga title? videos.
Saturday evening sees one of the biggest rivalries in world football take centre stage. Barcelona travel to the Spanish capital to face their fierce adversaries Real Madrid knowing a win would all but secure a third successive La Liga title for the Catalonian side.
Calling El Clasico a rivalry is probably an understatement, these two clubs are worst enemies and the cauldron atmosphere created each time the two sides meet demonstrates this better than any superlatives I can think of.
Barcelona travel to Madrid with an eight point lead in the La Liga title race and anything but a Real victory would probably see the title going to the Nou Camp for a third year running. Real Madrid manager Jose Mourinho suffered one of his most embarrassing ever defeats as a coach in the first Clasico this season when his side were outplayed and outclassed, resulting in a 5-0 defeat.
Both sides know this is the first of four meetings in just 18 days and whoever comes out on top here holds a monumental psychological advantage going into the Copa Del Rey final and the Champions League semi finals.
Real Madrid
Real Madrid manager Jose Mourinho will be keen to avenge the 5-0 defeat suffered by his side at the Nou Camp back in November and there is no doubt he would of learnt a thing or two from that drubbing. He is certainly not used to losing like that and would not have taken it lying down.
Los Merengue have won all but one of their home La Liga games this season, that shock defeat to Sporting Gijon two weeks ago was also Jose Mourinho’s first home defeat as a coach for nine years, a quite remarkable stat from a quite remarkable manager.
Should Real lose this game the locals will be left frustrated yet again by the clubs failure to beat Barcelona boss Pep Guardiola who has tasted victories in all five of his El Clasico’s in charge.
Even worse than that, the Madrid fans will know that failure to get a victory effectively hands Barcelona yet another La Liga title.
Barcelona
Barcelona come into this game knowing it is the first step on the road to another treble winning season. Great rivals Real Madrid stand in their way on all three fronts and they will be eager to land the first blow in this remarkable run of fixtures.
It is likely that Pep Guardiola will have to do without his captain Carlos Puyol at the back, leaving him with a selection headache of who to partner Gerard Pique with. Puyol is seen by most Barca fans as the icon of Catalunya and he gets motivated for these games like no one else could. He will be sorely missed.
The other point for concern is Lionel Messi’s apparent inability to score against a team managed by Mourinho however his influence in almost everything that Barcelona does, and his 48 goals already this season suggests that his time against Mourinho is not far away.
Since the 2-1 defeat away at Arsenal in the Champions League, Barcelona have won 10 and drawn one in all competitions, they have lost just once all season in La Liga winning 27 of their 31 matches. That defeat came at home to Hercules way back in September.
Head to Head
This game is once again being hyped as Messi vs Ronaldo as much as Barcelona vs Real Madrid, at the Nou Camp last time out there was only one winner, with Messi influencing everything Barcelona did, whilst Ronaldo did little but lose the ball and stamp his feet.
With manager Pep Guardiola at the helm, Barcelona have won the last five Clasico’s but before that they had no win in five attempts against Los Merengue.
During the season so far Real Madrid have kept the opposition out on 15 occasions while Barcelona have managed one more clean sheet.
If Madrid want to stay in the title race they will have to stop Barcelona winning on the road for just the third time this season. They are unbeaten away from the Nou Camp in La Liga since February last year.
On average Barcelona average a staggering 2.87 goals per away game, remarkably they have scored more goals on the road this season than they have on home turf. Real Madrid find the net an average of 3.07 times per game at the Santiago Bernabeu, one thing is for sure, this one won’t be 0-0.
Betting Recommendation
The absence of Carlos Puyol will be a massive blow to Barcelona and Cristino Ronaldo will be licking his lips at the prospect of having a Barcelona back four without their captain to attack. There is no question Mourinho will be out to avenge the 5-0 drubbing from November and he will be relying on the likes of Ronaldo to ensure this happens.
I think a draw seems the most likely result here, back a 2-2 draw at 14.5 (Betfair). Use your FREE £25 bet from Betfair for this bet to get a return of £362.50.
Not only that sign up for a Betfair account here today to get the chance to win £100 TOTALLY FREE.
For more betting tips visit www.thatsagoal.com
Will the first of four El Clasicos decide the La Liga title? football
world2010cup.org
