Sunday serves up another edition of the famous El Clasico as Real Madrid play host to Barcelona.
Latest El Clasico
If Barcelona are to have any chance of success in this season’s La Liga, then nothing less than a win at the Santiago Bernabeu will do.
Last Chance Saloon
After mixed Champions League fortunes for the two Spanish giants in midweek, it is time for Real Madrid and Barcelona to face each other this weekend. The hosts celebrating progress to the semi-finals, the visitors wondering how they are not there as well.
For Real Madrid, it needed penalties to dump out previous holders Manchester City and with Pep Guardiola’s men now out of the tournament, Los Blancos have moved a step closer to a 15th outright tournament win.
While for Barcelona, it was a crisis in Catalunya after their defeat to PSG at the Montjuic Stadium. Not only where they 3-2 up from the first leg in Paris, but Raphinha’s early goal put Xavi’s men firmly in the driving seat.
In the driving seat but then going in reverse by the time Ronald Araujo was sent off just before the half hour and with PSG then having numerical superiority on the pitch for an hour, they would use that to score four answered goals.
A 4-2 aggregate lead eventually transformed into a 4-6 defeat and with manager Xavi already announcing his departure from the club at the end of the season, the decision to make the announcement so early looks more and more mistimed.
Out of the Champions League and struggling to hold on to the mantle of defending champions before their trip to the Spanish capital. The team that was the gold standard almost 12 months ago, may now have to make do with the silver meal at the end of this season.
Going into the latest iteration of El Clasico, Real Madrid have an eight-point gap over their arch rivals and with just seven games of the current La Liga campaign to go, manager Carlo Ancelotti and his players can now see the finishing line in the distance.
Their last league outing was a narrow 1-0 win at the expense of Mallorca at Son Moix and although it was far from a vintage performance, it was the kind of performance that is expected of champions-elect at this stage of proceedings.
That same weekend saw Barcelona also grind out a 1-0 win on the road, as they would edge past relegation-threatened Cadiz and in doing so, they matched Real Madrid’s tally of earning 16 points from the last 18 on offer.
But now it is time for the first of my two tips and with nothing to split the two teams in terms of form and Real Madrid needing extra-time and penalties to split Manchester City out of the Champions League, my hunch is a draw at odds of 14/5.
In addition to this, I think this is a game that even if it cannot produce a winner, it will at least produce plenty of goals. Four to be precise and with the 2-2 draw currently priced at 11/1, that is a big enough price for it to also go on my betting slip.
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