In just a few hours, two immortals sides in FC Barcelona and Real Madrid will go head-to-head in what will be the biggest and the most anticipated football game on the planet. These clubs are two of the greatest in the world without a shadow of doubt.
Spanish football is often termed a two-horse race and looking at the quality of these two sides, it is difficult to argue against such a statement. Even the substitute benches of these teams ooze with quality. Players such as Lassano Diarra, Karim Benzema,
Sergio Canales, Seydou Keita and Bojan Krkic are a luxury few teams can afford in their line ups let alone the substitute bench.
The game will provide no end of excitement as we are all set to have some truly mouth watering battles on the pitch.
Bettor.com pinpoints certain battles that are likely to take place on the pitch and presents the readers with the insights.
Cristiano Ronaldo vs. Eric Abidal/Dani Alves
Even a half-fit Cristiano Ronaldo would be threat to best of defences. This Ronaldo has scored 14 goals in 12 league games so far this season and not to forget the five assists to goal with all the goals. Clearly Ronaldo is in the form of his life.
Owing much to his ambidextrous nature, the wing wizard will switch flanks, move across the goal and find every hole in the Blaugnara rearguard to drop into. In such a scenario, Ronaldo will frequently face the Barcelona wingbacks in Alves and Abidal. Where
Abidal is a solid defender, Alves tends to leave a lot of space on most of his forays forward. The Brazilian will have to choose his runs carefully as failure to track back on time will see CR7 make him pay dearly.
Similarly, should Alves manage to reignite his usually deadly partnership with Messi on the right flank, Ronaldo will have to track back and that will clearly hamper Ronaldo’s game.
Lionel Messi vs. Marcelo/Sami Khedira
It’s Lionel Messi vs. Ronaldo, this game. The two players have matched each other goal for goal so far this season and tonight shall be no different. ‘The flea’ will look to cut inside from his natural right wing position most of the times. If he is given
free space to run into, Messi will score and score a plenty.
It would take coordinated efforts from Marcelo and Khedira to stop the Argentine from effectively cutting in. In the Champions league last year, legendary Inter Milan skipper Zanetti pulled off a defensive master class to halt Messi in his tracks. Marcelo
is no Zanetti; in fact he is light years away from becoming one and will need all the support from his team-mates double marking Messi. Khedira will have to close down the Argentine the moment he cuts in and narrow his angles; force Messi to play the ball
sideways or more favourably, backwards.
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