The first El Clasico match of the season is here, and it takes place this weekend with Real Madrid hosting the defending champions in Barcelona. The two teams are separated by three point with 11 games played in the Spanish La Liga.
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Andres Iniesta has insisted that Barcelona will look to increase their gap at the top of La Liga, ahead of tomorrow’s El Clasico.
“We will have a chat with him to see how he feels [following the terrorist attacks in Paris] and then we will decide what’s best for him and the team”.
Modric’s influence on Madrid has grown with every season at the Bernabeu and, after a slow start to his Real career, is now considered undroppable.
We reckon a draw is a likely result, with Real not firing on all cylinders and Barca having to play minus Messi in front of a partisan crowd. Madrid have conceded just once at home this season while Barca, as good as Luis Suarez and Neymar have been, will inevitable miss Lionel Messi’s ability to unlock stubborn defences.
During his absence this season, Luis Suarez and Neymar have accounted for 20 of Barca’s 23 goals. Expectations are sky-high there – just look at Carlo Ancelotti, fired for failing to win a trophy just one season after capturing Madrid’s long-sought La Decima, their 10th Champions League title.
But perhaps what makes the Clasico truly special is the unrivaled display of skill, artistry and passion on the football field by players on both sides of the great Spanish divide.
Under the stewardship of Frank Riijkaard, Barcelona players were forced to endure their greatest ignonimony – giving a Guard of Honour to bitter rivals Real Madrid.
A simmering dispute between the Madrid government and the regional administration in Barcelona over Catalan independence and a recent allegation – strenuously denied – that an assistant referee came under pressure to favour Real have added to the drama of what is probably the biggest fixture in club football. Score, and Messi stands to take his team further clear at the top. The 30-year-old is a player “playing under protest” and “not enjoying the game”, according to the club’s former director, Jorge Valdano.
Those views were echoed by a man who knows Neymar extremely well: Tata Martino, who was his coach at Barcelona when he arrived from Santos in the summer of 2013 and who is now in charge of Argentina.
There is a glimmer of hope for Madrid fans, however, with Barca struggling for goals in the face of Benitez’s miserly approach. Neymar is expected to be standing alongside him and Ronaldo on the podium in what will be the most obvious sign yet of his emergence as the best of the rest.
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By contrast, there is an impression that Real Madrid are in a bad way, not playing well and are too defensive (more on that later, as I think that is a harsh judgment of the reality of the team).
