Stadium “Camp Nou” in the Catalonian capital city Barcelona is set to host “El Clasico” number 230 in Sunday evening, when the hosts from Barcelona and the eternal rivals from the Spanish capital – Real Madrid, will meet in a direct battle for the first position in Spanish La Liga. Twenty seven rounds from Primera Division are already in the history and both teams will have exactly 10 matches after the derby in Sunday evening, which is set to break all records for viewers of “El Clasico”, since there are no doubts that “Camp Nou” will be filled on maximum, while the game will be watched by a billions of people in the different opportunities – on the televisiion, internet live-streams, etc.
Short history of the rivalry between Barcelona and Real Madrid
Barcelona and Real Madrid are the most successful Spanish clubs and their rivalry dates from the years, when Spain was in a conflict as Barcelona was the symbol of the Catalan identify, while Real Madrid is the club of the royal family, and the club of the capital city Madrid. This automatically adds extra passion before every single game and we’re sure that all our visitors are well informed for the conflicts between Catalonia and the central government in Madrid, which dates since long time and you all know about the desire Catalonia to leave Spain as an independet country, but that’s another thread and we will focus only on the football aspects of the clash.
The game in Sunday evening will be officialy game number 230 between both clubs, non-officially – match number 263. However we will count only the competitive editions of “El Clasico”, where we have 92 wins for “Los Blancos”, 88 wins for Barcelona and respectively the draws are 48. The goal different is also on Real Madrid’s side – 277:266, but you can see that the difference is very thin, and that’s why of the reasons why the derby called “El Clasico” is followed by lots of people from all over the world, and all matches are quite unpredictable, since both clubs are almost always in the top of La Liga or they play on 110% of their possibilities when it’s time for the derby.
In Barcelona the home side have advantage, obviously, and “Barca” can be happy with their 61 wins, 23 draws and 25 defeats, when they play “El Clasico” at home.
Season 2014/2015 for Barcelona and Real Madrid – both teams will enter in the final part of their current campaign
The 230th edition of “El Clasico” will kick-off the final part of the season of both clubs and as we already mentioned they both have 10 games remaining after the game, and “El Clasico” may boost Barcelona with 4 points over their rivals, since they currently hold the first position with 65 points, which means that they have 1 point more than Real, who are on 2nd position with 64 points, and they were leading in the standings until few rounds, but after the 1:1 draw vs Villarreal (at home), and the defeat in Bilbao (0:1), now Real Madrid lost the first position and now Carlo Ancelotti’s men will have to challenge “Barca” in their fortress, where Barcelona have 11 wins and 2 defeats in their 13 La Liga games, while Real Madrid are with 10 wins and 4 defeats, when they’re playing away from “Santiago Bernabeu”.
Both teams will begin their final Champions League campaign as well, where in today’s quarter-final draw both teams found their opponents, which they already know really well. Barcelona will face French champions PSG, Real Madrid will play against their city rivals Atletico Madrid, against who they still don’t have a win in season 2014/2015, as they have already played 6 matches against each other, but the great memories from the tenth Champions League trophy are not so far away. Of course, first of all both clubs must focus only on the upcoming “El Clasico”, which can be a crucial hit over Real Madrid’s ambitoons, where the situation is not so good and in the last weeks it’s obvious that there is some extra pressure in the club, as the supporters of Real Madrid also contribute for this. Carlo Ancelotti starts to feel the pressure and a possible fail in another La Liga campaign, as well in the Champions League, may cost him his place at “Santiago Bernabeu”, and the speculations for new managers of “Los Merengues” already started. However we can talk for a possible manager rotation only if Real Madrid fails at all fronts, which will be extremely disappointing for the board, and mainly for the supporters.
On other side Barcelona starts to gain confidence despite the 0:1 defeat at home from Málaga, a month ago. Now “Barca” is with 6 successive wins in all competitions and two from them were against the English champions Manchester City, which became Barcelona’s victim in the 1/8 finals of the Champions League.
Barcelona also have another joker in their pocket as “The Catalans” reached the Copa del Rey final, where they’ll meet “The Basques” from Athletic Club Bilbao, but this will happen in end of May, which allows to Luis Enrique to stay tuned of the upcoming Primera Division and Champion League ties, which are more important than the Spanish Cup, but we are sure that “Blaugrana” won’t have something against to take the trophy, which they lost in last year’s final exactly from Real Madrid – 1:2 defeat in Valencia. Now Barcelona can chase their first Copa del Rey success since 2012, which can be a huge bonus if Barcelona’s attacking trio manage to contribute for the possible success at all “fields”, where Barcelona is involved. Exactly the 2:1 success in the Spanish Cup final was the first from the two successive wins, with which Real Madrid will enter in upcoming “El Clasico”, as they won the last fixture in end of October with 3:1.
Tactical formations and possible approaches of both teams for the 230th El Clasico
Luis Enrique and Carlo Ancelotti will be key figures for the upcoming El Clasico. From their decisions will largely depend the beauty of the derby and the possible goal fiesta, which usually all supporters expect in this game. However we beleive that the pressure sometimes is more than necessary and we believe that Carlo Ancelotti felt it more in recent weeks mainly because of the disappointing results, in which Real Madrid won only 2 from the last 5 competitive games. Without any doubts the 1:1 draw at home against “The Yellow Submarine” from Villarreal could be accepted somehow, because you can’t expect your team to win in 100% of the games, and Villarreal are one from the strong La Liga sides, but the following defeats from Athletic Bilbao, and mainly the 3:4 defeat from Schalke 04, who were so close to eliminate Real Madrid from the Champions League 1/8 finals, surely raises some questions to the Italian coach of “Los Blancos”. Extra nervousness came from the supporters of Real Madrid, which “boo-ed” their players after the poor results, exactly in the moment when their players needed their support, and we saw the way of Gareth Bale’s celebration after he scored twice for the 2:0 win over Levante last weekend. The fact that even player like Cristiano Ronaldo was criticised speaks for itself. It’s obvious that the composure of Real Madrid is not on the required level, and this may have negative influence before “El Clasico”.
Luis Enrique can count on his amazing attacking trio, so as Carlo Ancelotti, as the spectacular battle of both teams attacks will make the current edition of El Clasico one from the most awaited. Neymar- Leo Messi- Luis Suarez against BBC (Bale, Benzema, Cristiano Ronaldo) surely forms the most spectacular clash of titans in the modern football, as the rivalry between Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo always adds extra spectacle on the field. With these three formations it’s quite sure that both teams will use their regular 4-3-3 formations, and except the superb skills of their strikers, crucial for the final challenge will be the midfielders contribution. Another fact here is the defensive look of both sides – currently Barcelona is the team with better defence, and with better attack, according to the La Liga stats (78 goals scored against 77 for Real Madrid, 16 goals conceded – against 24 for Real Madrid), and we believe that the defences of both sides will have major contribution. It will be extremely important which defence will be more capable to stop the world class attackers of the opposition, and whichever of them do so – this will be a huge step for the final outcome of the 230th “El Clasico”.
It is quite sure that Barcelona will hold the possesion more and “Blaugrana” will have to realize the created opportunities, which logically will come. The main advantage of “Los Blancos” may come from the set pieces, and from the counter attacks, which will be the main weapon for Carlo Ancelotti here, and it’s very important to see how Luis Enrique will deal with that, in his second attempt. It was obvious that in the previous edition of “El Clasico” Barcelona were far from the needed performance to win, but this time it looks that their form is one idea better than of “Los Blanocs”.
Who will win in El Clasico? Final conclusion, betting prediction and possible starting squads of Barcelona and Real Madrid 22.03.2015
Barcelona will take on Real Madrid almost one year after their last success over the rivals from Madrid. On 23rd of March last year Barcelona won in perhaps the most spectacular “El Clasico” in the last couple of years, and Barca did so on “Santiago Bernabeu” in Madrid, where they won with 4;3 after a hattrick by Lionel Messi. One year later the Argentinian attacker of Barca looks the start in better form, and he managed to overtake his Portuguese rival in the goalscorer rankings, as currently Messi holds the first position in La Liga’s goalscorers list with 32 goals, while Cristiano Ronaldo is with 2 goals less – 30, and we should have in mind that Ronaldo had a convincing lead over Messi few months ago, but now Messi looks in better condition, as well his attacking partners. It seems that the trio Suarez-Messi-Neymar starts to work properly and we believe that these three players will leave their mark in the derby, and our prediction for “El Clasico” is that Barcelona will win this time – Barcelona to win over Real Madrid.
We expect the unnecessary tension over Real Madrid to affect somehow, and that’s why we believe that Barcelona can continue with their good form in the last month.
Referee of “El Clasico” is Antonio Miguel Mateu Lahoz who is one from the referees, who really like to show cards but the offered by the bookies line for card betting is too big, and we don’t find value in card betting right now, since we believe that the referee can decide to allow more open football in these type of games, and as an example we will mention the last time when he was referee of “El Clasico” in the mentioned upwards Copa del Rey 2014 final, where he had shown “only 5 yellow cards”.
Possible starting XI:
Barcelona: Bravo – Alba, Mathieu, Pique, Alves – Rakitic, Mascherano, Iniesta – Neymar, Suarez, Messi. (4-3-3)
Injured players – Thomas Vermaelen, Sergio Busquets (doubtful).
Real Madrid: Casillas – Carvajal, Ramos, Pepe, Marcelo – Isco, Kroos, Modric – Bale, Benzema, Ronaldo. (4-3-3)
Injured players – James Rodriguez.
Referee: Antonio Miguel Mateu Lahoz (21 yellow and 2 red cards in his last 3 La Liga matches)