El Clasico preview: Real Madrid v Barcelona
Football matches don’t come much bigger or more significant than this. “El Gran Clasico”, billed as the match of the millennium, will take place at the Bernabeu this Saturday night; and both clubs won’t need any reminding that victory will cement their status as favourites for the Primera Liga title.
It could barely be closer going into the 160th Clasico. Both Real and Barça are level on points (77), and are separated by just a solitary league goal. It’s never been tighter.
Out of the Champions League and dumped out of the Copa del Rey by Spanish minnows Alcorcon back in November, Real Madrid boss Manuel Pellegrini is relying on winning the league title to save him his job.
The club’s president, Florentino Perez, splashed the cash last summer in a bid to end Barcelona’s dominance. Watching the Catalan giants storm to an historic treble was too difficult for the Madridistas to comprehend and changes had to be made. But despite a wealth of talent including Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka, Karim Benzema and Xabi Alonso all arriving in Madrid last summer, the new-wave of Galacticos were prematurely eliminated from Europe after a surprise defeat to Lyon last month.
Pellegrini has been skating on thin ice ever since the autumn, and the general consensus suggests that the former Villarreal boss will be given his P45 unless he can deliver the league title to the Bernabeu next month.
On the flip side, things could hardly be sweeter for their bitter rivals in the north-east of Spain. Fresh from a stunning 4-1 victory against Arsenal at the Nou Camp, Pep Guardiola surely has the most secure job in Europe.
Safely into the Champions League semi-finals and easily looking the most assured side left in the competition - they now bid to become the first ever side to retain the prestigious European Cup.
Barça have enjoyed another memorable season, and this has led to much debate and deliberation over whether or not this current Barcelona side is the best team of all time. It’s hard to argue against those who proclaim that it is.
Down the years and throughout the generations, Barcelona and Real Madrid have played home to some of the best players of all time. A brief glance down the list of their former stars reads like a who’s who of the finest footballers to have ever graced a football pitch: Diego Maradona, Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldo, Johan Cruyff, Ronaldinho, Romario, Alfredo di Stefano, Ferenc Puskas – you get the picture.
However, both teams currently have the two players who are widely-regarded as the best footballers of their generation: Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.
After his world-class performance against Arsenal on Tuesday, where he grabbed all four goals, 22-year-old Messi is already being talked about as possibly the greatest player of all time. Although this is a premature statement to make, the Argentinian magician is certainly on the right path.
Even his rival for the crown of best player in the world - the shy, retiring and not-at-all arrogant, Ronaldo - admitted that “both” of them were the best. The answer was a lot different this time last year in the build up to the Champions League Final...
Although this match will inevitably be focused on the personal duel between Messi and Ronaldo, there will be 20 other players out on the pristine Bernabeu pitch on Saturday night. All potential match-winners with the ability to have a real say in how this match pans out.
Real are still reeling after being thumped 6-2 by Guardiola’s men in last season’s Clasico at the Bernabeu, 11 months ago, and will be gunning for revenge this time around.
Just as they did last year, Real have entered this fixture in superb form at exactly the right time. The hosts of this weekend’s match are currently on a 12-match winning streak in the league; but it could well be unlucky 13 for Pellegrini’s men.
Barça will be without November’s match winner, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, as he has failed to recover from a calf injury in time. But Guardiola will take his pick from Thierry Henry, Bojan or Pedro to fill the void left by the mercurial Swede. Just how will they cope?
Meanwhile, Xabi Alonso returns for Real Madrid and could play a key role in prizing open the vulnerable Barcelona defence. It could well be a case of whoever scores the most wins rather than attempting to close out the opposition. Anti-football haters, rejoice.
This fixture has always been one for the football purists. It often produces encounters which are pulsating, end-to-end, vintage clashes; and admirers of world-class attacking football needn’t look elsewhere this weekend.
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