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Only 2 weeks until the most anticipated game of the season takes place. Christmas will definitely come early this year with this unbelievable present. How do people think this game will turn out?
The stakes of this game will be heavily influenced by next week's fixtures. At the moment, Madrid has a 4-point lead but it could turn into 7 points if we beat Osasuna at home next week and Barcelona loses against Valencia away. Valencia may be in chaos, but they will always be a threat in the Mestalla so we can't rule out a Valencia victory. Of course, the dream scenario for the cules would be a win there and a loss or draw for us against Osasuna, so if they win el clasico they would jump ahead of us in the table. Personally I think that both teams will win their fixtures next week but we'll see.
At the moment I would take a draw as the most likely scenario but a Barcelona revival in el clasico would hardly be a surprise either. It's what these games are there for. Last season both of our games against Barcelona helped to drive the team forward after bad patches.
There will always be the danger of Eto'o who loves to score against us, Messi's magic and if Dinho wakes up he could give our defense a big nightmare. This is not even considering what the likes of Xavi or Iniesta would do.
Barcelona's problems could emerge from the always unreliable Valdes, who made yet another blunder this week after an awful attempt to stop along range shot against Deportivo. It was a good strike, but suffice to say that any class goalie would have stopped it. Puyol has also looked like a bit of a liability at times and Zambrotta seems to get worse with every game.
Barcelona has a lot to fear from us as well of course. Raul and Van Nistelrooy love scoring against Barcelona. Van Nistelrooy's case is certainly interesting given that he never scored against Liverpool but has scored 3 goals in 2 games against Barcelona. Robinho made Zambrotta his bitch in the Bernabeu last year and is on fire at the moment. If both Robinho and Messi perform to their abilities, we could be in for the best clasico in years.
We could also experience some problems of course. Schuster will have to play Heinze as LB since the prospect of Marcelo going up against Messi at this stage is frightning. Although Heinze has been on great form he's been injured recently and lacks pace. Messi could eat him for breakfast with his sprints. Pepe has also looked very strong but would he be ready to face an in-form Eto'o? Guti is always a liability due to his inconsistency and Diarra's performances have been awful lately. I can see him giving Messi and Eto'o assists in our penalty area at this point.
The stakes of this game will be heavily influenced by next week's fixtures. At the moment, Madrid has a 4-point lead but it could turn into 7 points if we beat Osasuna at home next week and Barcelona loses against Valencia away. Valencia may be in chaos, but they will always be a threat in the Mestalla so we can't rule out a Valencia victory. Of course, the dream scenario for the cules would be a win there and a loss or draw for us against Osasuna, so if they win el clasico they would jump ahead of us in the table. Personally I think that both teams will win their fixtures next week but we'll see.
At the moment I would take a draw as the most likely scenario but a Barcelona revival in el clasico would hardly be a surprise either. It's what these games are there for. Last season both of our games against Barcelona helped to drive the team forward after bad patches.
There will always be the danger of Eto'o who loves to score against us, Messi's magic and if Dinho wakes up he could give our defense a big nightmare. This is not even considering what the likes of Xavi or Iniesta would do.
Barcelona's problems could emerge from the always unreliable Valdes, who made yet another blunder this week after an awful attempt to stop along range shot against Deportivo. It was a good strike, but suffice to say that any class goalie would have stopped it. Puyol has also looked like a bit of a liability at times and Zambrotta seems to get worse with every game.
Barcelona has a lot to fear from us as well of course. Raul and Van Nistelrooy love scoring against Barcelona. Van Nistelrooy's case is certainly interesting given that he never scored against Liverpool but has scored 3 goals in 2 games against Barcelona. Robinho made Zambrotta his bitch in the Bernabeu last year and is on fire at the moment. If both Robinho and Messi perform to their abilities, we could be in for the best clasico in years.
We could also experience some problems of course. Schuster will have to play Heinze as LB since the prospect of Marcelo going up against Messi at this stage is frightning. Although Heinze has been on great form he's been injured recently and lacks pace. Messi could eat him for breakfast with his sprints. Pepe has also looked very strong but would he be ready to face an in-form Eto'o? Guti is always a liability due to his inconsistency and Diarra's performances have been awful lately. I can see him giving Messi and Eto'o assists in our penalty area at this point.
