El Clasico: Real Madrid vs. Barcelona Preview, Odds, Prediction

Another El Clasico is underway, as Real Madrid hosts Barcelona tonight at Santiago Bernabeu. The two glorious clubs will face once again, and the entire football world will stop to see which of these two teams will come out as the winner. Real is topping the standings far ahead of the Catalonians, but that isn’t significant in this event. Pride, on the other hand, is. There isn’t a better way of improving the current situation for Barcelona than beating the hated rival in his own house. Everything else would be forgotten.

Preview

Real Madrid (+130) won the past five events, among others, the one against PSG which was them erasing a minimal deficit from the opening leg, and coming back from behind at Bernabeu. The unreal second half, in which Karim Benzema scored a hat-trick, was enough for the Los Blancos to win 3-1 and enter the top eight teams of the European continent.

In four of these five wins, Real netted at least three goals, and in three games, we saw them posting clean sheets, which is obvious proof that they severely increased form. Carlo Ancelotti apparently targeted the form for this part of the year.

Real didn’t lose at home since late September, having 15 consecutive matches without a failure. During that period, they’ve recorded 12 wins and three draws.

Barcelona (+200) is without a defeat in the previous dozen contests, with a record of eight wins and two draws throughout that stretch. They played in Istanbul during this midweek, beating Galatasaray and advancing to the quarterfinals of the UEFA Europa League.

Xavi’s boys are slowly learning the secrets of their manager, who established a system in Barca’s game. So it is really not strange to see Blaugrana pushing well these days. In three of the previous five games Ter Stegen wasn’t beaten.

Also, on the other side of the pitch, forwards are doing their part of the job superbly, and only one in the latest seven events, we haven’t seen Barca scoring at least twice.

Latest News

A big blow for Real is the fact that Karim Benzema won’t play due to his calf injury. The Frenchman was excellent over the past few games, and the leading player of the Los Blancos. Ferland Mendy is out for quite some time.

Fati, Dest, Umtiti, Balde, and Sergi Roberto won’t play for Barca, but these guys are already out, and Xavi got used to picking the team without them.

Head to Head Games

This is the 249th El Clasico. Until this moment, Real has 100 wins, Barcelona four fewer and 52 games ended with draws.

This year, Real was better twice, the first time at Camp Nou, 1-2, and the second when they beat Blaugrana in the Super Cup, 2-3 after extra times.

Prediction

Both sides play well upfront, and our pick for this game is both teams to score. Barcelona’s forwards clicked, and even though they post good performances, we believe that they have much more room for improvement. On the other side, Real is very potent even without Benzema, with a fantastic midfield that constantly creates chances. Therefore, goals on both sides are our suggestion.

Pick: Both teams to score -180

Here is the preview for Derby della Capitale, Roma vs. Lazio.