Barcelona will be hosting Real Madrid at the Nou Camp and that gives Los Blancos their first opportunity to bridge the gap between them and the league leaders.
Barcelona and Real Madrid will be locking horns with one another as both the teams return their focus to La Liga after winning their respective UEFA Champions League fixtures.
While Barcelona won their midweek game 2-0 against the Portuguese side, Benfica, Real Madrid faced the Dutch champions, Ajax, and won 4-1 against them.
With such a remarkable winning record on their side, Barcelona are currently favourites to win the game against their arch-rivals.
However, Jose Mourinho currently has the bragging rights as the Portuguese mentor helped Real Madrid win the Spanish La Liga last season, and also won the Supercopa de Espana against Barcelona right at the start of the current season.
Even though Barcelona could not win the early season title this time round, they are still at the top of the Spanish La Liga, winning all six of their respective games.
On the other hand, Madrid have not taken the ideal start in the league, dropping eight points in the process and currently trailing behind the league leaders, Barcelona.
Team News: http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Barcelona-c38604
Barcelona are currently in all sorts of troubles as Tito Vilanova will be without the services of many key players.
La Blaugrana lost http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Gerard-c14664 Pique when they played their first UEFA Champions League game against Spartak Moscow.
During the most recent fixture against Benfica, Tito Vilanova also had to see http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Carles-Puyol-c8331 dislocating his elbow, an injury which will keep the club captain out of action for at up to eight weeks. Therefore, Puyol will not be playing for La Blaugrana in
the upcoming La Liga fixture.
With the first-choice centre-backs missing from the team, Vilanova will have to play Alex Song and http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Javier-Mascherano-c18071.
Moreover, the Brazilian full-back, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Adriano-c3773, is also not fit to play. However, the midfield star, Andres Iniesta has regained full fitness after recovering from a thigh injury.
Barcelona’s expected line-up is as follows:
Victor Valdes; http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Alexis-Sánchez-c4979, Lionel Messi.
Team News: Real Madrid
Despite taking a slow start to the Spanish La Liga campaign, Real Madrid have finally started showing signs of improvement.
Los Blancos have already lost eight points in the season and they can definitely not afford to lose more.
Jose Mourinho will not be without any of his first-choice players as they are all fit to perform against Barcelona. However, the former http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Chelsea-c38786 boss will be going through a selection crises as most of his midfielders are performing extraordinarily.
Mesut Ozil, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Luka-Modric-c22857 and Ricardo Kaka have all shown that they can perform at the highest level. However, Modric might be the one who will sit the game out as he has not been as good as the other two.
Real Madrid are currently eight points behind Barcelona and Jose Mourinho is going to field his strongest side in order to bridge the gap between the two teams.
Madrid’s expected line-up is as follows:
http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Karim-Benzema-c20350.
Prediction:
Barcelona are currently in scintillating form and it seems as if they are not ready to lose this time round. However, with Real Madrid’s attack taking on their second-choice defenders, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Alex-Song-c4804 and Javier Mascherano, goals are bound to happen.
On the other hand, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Pedro-c29582 Rodriguez have been performing well.
Since both the teams are scoring heavily; therefore, the match is expected to be 2-2 draw.
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