Christmas has come early as La Liga serves up a festive affair to savour.
Real Madrid v Barcelona – Saturday 12:00, Sky Sports
Christmas has come early as La Liga serves up a festive affair to savour. While Real Madrid were off claiming their second successive Club World Championship in the UAE, Barcelona chalked up their 13th victory of the season to extend their advantage over their fiercest rivals to 11 points. Even though they have a game in hand, anything other than three points for Los Blancos and they can kiss their La Liga tittle goodbye, adding even more spice to what already surrounds El Clasico.
In the league the Catalans have a dominant record in the Clasico in recent times, with a W5-D1-L2 record since 2013/14, and at the Bernabeu it’s an even more impressive W6-D1-L2 over the last nine seasons. The hosts have been inconsistent this term, failing to go higher than 3rd in the table all season (currently 4th) but Zinedine Zidane does at least have a fully fit squad to choose from for almost the first time. Nevertheless, considering they’ve travelled to the UAE to play twice in the last week, their head-to-head record with Barca and the gap between the two in the standings, Madrid don’t deserve to be as short as they are.
The Catalans have won 13 of 16 unbeaten matches this term, only dropping points on the road at the other two clubs above Real in the table – Valencia and Atletico. A point would be a fantastic result and under the more cautious Ernesto Valverde none of their away matches have seen more than three strikes so this might not be the goal-fest we’ve gotten used to. Backing the visitors on the double chance is the standout selection. Additionally, the 1-1 correct score is of interest as it occurred in both Barca’s trips to the Mestalla and the Wanda Metropolitano.
The return to form of Luis Suarez – six goals in his last five league outings – is another major boost for Barcelona, especially as Lionel Messi only has three in his last nine playing in a slightly deeper role. However, the Argentine is the man for the big occasion and has a prolific record in El Clasico. In all competitions he has 24 goals in 36 appearances against Real which improves to 16 from 22 in just league encounters, and so he looks too good a price to ignore at odds-against.
