One of the biggest fixtures on the football calendar, the El Clasico, sees the two greatest clubs in Spain collide on Saturday as Real Madrid welcome Barcelona to the Spanish capital. Both teams will be hungry to take all three points from their rivals in a derby – being played at Madrid’s Alfredo Di Stefano training ground due to the ongoing renovations at the Bernabeu – that is hugely significant on the La Liga title race. Both sides are hot on the tail of the league leaders Atletico, with Real three points below and Barca just two adrift.
The El Clasico sides have both been in inspired form recently, with Los Blancos winning their last five games in all competitions, including the 3-1 quarter-final win over Liverpool in their Champions League quarter-final first leg on Tuesday. On the other hand, Ronald Koeman’s Barca have won their last six consecutive league games.
There’s likely to be goals when these two go at it, and we can see the Catalonians prevailing, Especially when you take into consideration the absence of captain Sergio Ramos as well as Raphael Varane for Madrid, leaving Zinedine Zidane’s side with no first-choice centre-back.
This will surely inviter Lionel Messi to cause havoc – not that he needs any inspiration. The odds are 5/2 for both teams to score and Barcelona to win.