The 232nd Clasico takes centre-stage this weekend and it’ll be an emotional evening at the Camp Nou following the recent tragic passing of Johan Cruyff.
Both sides should in theory be focussing on next midweek’s Champions League but with decades of history and tradition to uphold, we can expect the two giants to field full-strength XIs in Catalonia. It promises to be another belting contest.
It’s a fixture that Barcelona have flourished in, in recent seasons. The Catalans have claimed top honours in four of the last five meetings – including that stunning 4-0 rout at the Bernabeu earlier this season – and the Blaugrana have only been beaten in three of their last 15 head-to-heads with Real.
Without a defeat in 22 (W20-D2-L0) at the Camp Nou and on a stunning 39-match unbeaten streak across all competitions, Luis Enrique’s men are perhaps understandable short favourites here to clinch another three points.
But with Lionel Messi, Neymar, Luis Suarez, Dani Alves, Javier Mascherano and Claudio Bravo all involved in World Cup qualifiers over the past 10 days and major doubts over Jordi Alba’s participation, Barcelona don’t look as rock solid as their pre-match quotes.
Madrid’s only hope of silverware this season is the Champions League but Zinedine Zidane’s men don’t face Wolfsburg until Wednesday. And with neither Gareth Bale nor Karim Benzema involved in international duty, and Cristiano Ronaldo only going as far as Lisbon, the Los Blancos front-three should be fit, fresh and raring to go.
The goals markets are understandably skinny with a huge 18 of the past 19 Clasicos having featured winning Both Teams To Score bets, whilst the last nine meetings in Catalonia have all broken the Over 2.5 Goals barrier.
But rather than attacking the standard goals markets, take a look at the first-half angle where Both Teams To Score in the first-half can be snapped up at 3.25.
It’s proven a profitable formula in five of the most recent seven Clasicos whilst accumulatively the two teams have recorded just seven clean sheets in their last 22 outings