UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE SEMI-FINAL PREVIEW: REAL MADRID v BARCELONA

El Clasico. Champions League semi-final. Santiago Bernabeu. Do I need to say anymore? The whole football universe will watch with hypnotic fixation the action that is about to unfold over the two legs between these two giants of the game. Real Madrid and Barcelona have contested two Clasicos over the past ten days but neither can come close to the gravitas of the game on Wednesday night as the two sides fight for a place in the final at Wembley.

The La Liga game last weekend ended in a 1-1 draw while the Copa Del Rey final went Madrid's way after a dramatic extra-time goal by Cristiano Ronaldo. The last time these two sides contested a Champions League semi-final was in 2002, when Real Madrid beat Barca 3-1 on aggregate to make it to the final at Glasgow, where Zinedine Zidane scored an iconic goal to dispatch Bayer Leverkusen and help Madrid win their record 9th European Cup.

Real Madrid

A much changed Madrid side hammered Valencia 6-3 on Saturday as they geared up for the game on Wednesday in the grandest of manners. The bigger victory came a few days earlier, when they sealed a morale boosting win at the Mestalla to capture their first Copa Del Rey trophy since 1993. Mourinho deployed ultra-defensive tactics in a bid to stop Barca pillaging and it worked to perfection as they frustrated the Catalans for most of the game. The Special One is expected to change his tactics for the two-legged affair as he seeks to take a healthy advantage to the Nou Camp in a week's time.

The concerns for Madrid lie in the suspensions department where Ricardo Carvalho is suspended for the game after picking up his 3rd yellow card of the campaign while Ronaldo, Raul Albiol, Sergi Ramos and Angel Di Maria are all one booking away from a suspension. But Madrid will welcome Pepe back into the side after Brazilian served his one-match suspension in the last round against Tottenham Hotspur. The hero from the 1st leg against Spurs, Emmanuel Adebayor, is out with an abductor injury while Sami Khedira is also expected to miss the game with the same problem.

The one positive note for Madrid has been the return of Kaka and Gonzalo Higuain as the duo scored five of the six goals against Valencia on Saturday. The likes of Karim Benzema and Mesut Ozil might keep them out of the starting line up for the two games, but their presence on the bench surely gives Madrid a huge advantage when things need to be turned around.

Barcelona

The Catalans responded to the Copa Del Rey loss in mid-week with a pedantic 2-0 victory over Osasuna on Saturday as Pep Guardiola rang in the changes. Unsurprisingly, the headlines were stolen by Lionel Messi as he became the first player in the history of Spanish football to score 50 goals in a season. In addition to being the top scorer in La Liga, the little magician is also at the top of the charts in the Champions League, where he has nine goals to his name so far. Guardiola was also relived to have his main centre forward back among the goals, David Villa ending his 11-game goal drought against Osasuna.

Barca have a few injury worries in defence, where Adriano is out for rest of the season while Diego Milito had to be substituted on Saturday after picking up a calf strain. Maxwell played the ninety minutes in spite of suffering with a groin strain while Carles Puyol is still struggling with a hamstring injury. But they will welcome Andres Iniesta back into the side after the midfielder served his one-match suspension against Shakhtar Donetsk in the last round.

Barca do not have too many options on the bench and that could pose a problem, especially when frustrated by Madrid. But as we all know the standard starting eleven of Barca can pulverise any side in the world on their day and if anybody feels that the loss in the Copa Del Rey has made them weaker going into the tie, they don't need to look any further than the 5-0 trouncing of Madrid at the Nou Camp back in November.

Head-to-Head:

20 April, 2011: Real Madrid 1-0 Barcelona (Copa Del Rey)
16 April, 2011: Real Madrid 1-1 Barcelona

Form Guide:

Real Madrid: WWDWW

23 April, 2011: Valencia 3-6 Real Madrid
20 April, 2011: Real Madrid 1-0 Barcelona (Copa Del Rey)
16 April, 2011: Real Madrid 1-1 Barcelona
13 April, 2011: Tottenham 0-1 Real Madrid (Champions League)
9 April, 2011: Athletic Bilbao 0-3 Real Madrid

Barcelona: WLDWW

23 April, 2011: Barcelona 2-0 Osasuna
20 April, 2011: Real Madrid 1-0 Barcelona (Copa Del Rey)
16 April, 2011: Real Madrid 1-1 Barcelona
12 April, 2011: Shakhtar Donetsk 0-1 Barcelona (Champions League)
9 April, 2011: Barcelona 3-1 Almeria

Probable Line Ups:

Real Madrid (4-2-3-1): Casillas (Gk), Ramos, Pepe, Albiol, Marcelo, Alonso, Diarra, Di Maria, Ozil, Ronaldo, Benzema

The back four picks itself as centre-backs Pepe and Albiol will be protected by the full backs Ramos and Marcelo. Iker Casillas will be a huge presence in goal as Madrid will be keen to keep a clean sheet. With Khedira out injured, Lassana Diarra, who played the 90 minutes against Valencia, should slot into the defensive midfield position alongside Xabi Alonso. Ozil will be a vital link in the attacking third with Di Maria and Ronaldo bombing down the wings. Up front, Benzema is likely to be the lone striker.

Barcelona (4-3-3): Valdes (Gk), Alves, Pique, Puyol, Milito, Busquets, Xavi, Iniesta, Messi, Villa, Pedro

Guardiola doesn't have too many tough decisions to make in his team selection as the Messi, Villa and Pedro will occupy the front line with Xavi, Iniesta and Sergio Busquets covering the midfield positions. while Milito covers at left back. Alternatively, Dani Alves might move to left back with Puyol starting at right back.

Guru's Prediction: "REAL MADRID"

Real Madrid Vs Barcelona Match Preview

Some Facts :-

• Real Madrid have only ever won when they've taken the lead in La Liga action this term.

• The Bernabeu club tend to be quick starters when they play home Clasicos; registering in the opening 15 minutes of four of the last six.

• This season, Madrid have proven the best team offensively in the league in the early stages of games, striking 11 times in the opening quarter of an hour.

• Spanish players account for only two goals scored by Jose Mourinho’s men in league action this season (Sergio Ramos vs. Athletic Bilbao and Esteban Granero vs. Almeria).

• The 31-time Spanish kings have conceded the fewest left-footed goals in the Primera Division this season (three), and also the fewest goals from set pieces (three).

• Barcelona have won their last five matches against Madrid, representing their best sequence of results against the nine-time European champions.

• Pedro is the only player to have scored in each of the last two fixtures between the sides, while Lionel Messi has registered in his last two matches at the Bernabeu.

• Pep Guardiola’s side have scored fewer headed goals in the Primera Division than all of their rivals, barring Espanyol and Getafe, but they have scored more than any other team from outside the box (14).

• The opening 15 minutes of matches has proven kind to the visitors this season; they’ve yet to concede during that time-frame.

Four games; 18 days; three competitions. Those are the specs for Real Madrid and Barcelona, two of soccer's fiercest rivals, who will be going head-to-head again and again and again between now and the end of the season, with everything at stake.

Forget the histrionics; forget Lluís Companys versus Generalísimo Franco; forget Catalan nationalism versus the Spanish state. Between now and May 3, these two sides will be getting enough hate on for each other without going through the layers of politics that inevitably define the Clasico. Three trophies are up for grabs, and where they end up will be determined by which team wins the upcoming four-part mini-series.

It all begins today at Madrid's Bernebau stadium. Their La Liga rivals long left in their collective dust, Real Madrid and Barcelona were always going to finish the season in first and second place, as they have in each of the past two campaigns. And while the Catalan side holds an eight-point lead atop the standings coming into the match, a victory for the hosts would cut the gap to five points.

Still, the six league games remaining are likely not enough for Madrid to make up the ground. This championship is Barcelona's to lose, and it would take a collapse of epic proportions for that to happen. As a result, Madrid will be more concerned with the next three matches against their archrivals -- the final of the Copa del Rey, and the two-legged semifinal of the Champions League.

They'll be desperate to win the latter competition, in particular. After a string of exits at the first hurdle in the knockout stage, Madrid shellacked historical banana skin Olympique Lyon in the Round of 16 before easing past Tottenham Hotspur in the quarter-finals. All the while, they continued what would have been a record-breaking two-year run in La Liga were it not for Barcelona's exceptional form.

In any other league, in any other era, 24 wins from 31 matches and 72 goals scored to only 22 conceded would have you comfortably atop the table. Not so in La Liga, however, where Barcelona have lost only once, notched 85 goals and allowed just 16. It's mind-bending, really, thinking about what the Blaugrana have done this season.

That Madrid have so much as kept within reach of their rivals is an achievement in and of itself, but second place doesn't cut it in the Spanish capital, and manager Jose Mourinho has surely been planning his strategy for the pair of Champions League semifinal matches, which will be played on April 27 and May 3.

Today's match, and Wednesday's Copa del Rey final, will effectively be trial runs for Mourinho and his players--glorified training sessions for battle to come 11 days from now. They'll be studying their opponents, observing their tendencies and learning how to handle them. They might try different formations.

Mourinho, of course, knocked Barcelona out of the Champions League as manager of Inter Milan exactly a year ago. Then, like now, his side played the first leg at home before traveling to Camp Nou. And now, like then, he'll want to take an advantage into hostile territory.

After beating the Catalans 3-1 at the San Siro last April, his side successfully absorbed the inevitable Barcelona pressure in the second leg and escaped with a 3-2 win on aggregate. Mourinho is an expert as these two-legged affairs, and the two chances he has to examine his foe in the next few days will only aid his preparations.

Guru's Prediction:  "The Draw"