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"