A Competition also known as the Spanish Cup, the first of two encounters in one week for these Spanish giants,and will be the eighth time the two have met since April, boy am I looking forward to this!Last time out in Madrid, besides scoring to early and not taking their chances, the magic of Messi & co took advantage of that and proved my prediction wrong. Tonight might very well be much of the same, though I wouldn't say either team are in sparkling form and I do feel this is the most confident Real Madrid team coming into an El Clasico (in a while), especially because the feeling in the camp is that they could have. . .no wait they should have won in the last encounter and didn't.
Madrid have injury doubts over Sami Khedira and Pepe but expect to welcome back Angel Di Maria, who has been very important for them this season, Alvaro Arbeloa is suspended after losing his appeal. Barcelona's long-term casualties Ibrahim Afellay, David Villa and Pedro Rodriguez will not be in the Bernabeu, and neither will Seydou Keita who has travelled to the Africa Cup of Nations to play with Mali.
I can throw stats around like: Eighteen is the number of cards the most booked player, former Real and Spain defender Fernando Hierro, collected in official Clasicos (17 yellow and one red). Twenty two the number of matches Real have won in their last 23 games in all competitions. Their only defeat was a 3-1 La Liga reverse at home to Barca six weeks ago or the fact that Messi enjoys playing against Madrid 13 Clasico goals netted which is the highest scorer among current members of either squad and is joint-fifth on the all-time list with former Real winger Gento, and that Ronaldo with only 3 goals would rather not play Barcelona but stats count for nought.
I expect Messi to be at his sparkling best you can forgive me for stating the obvious, what might be interesting is the way Ronaldo reacts to the critism from the Real fans. So much so that at a news conference on Tuesday, a cantankerous Mourinho came to his defence and said Ronaldo's performance in Saturday's 2-1 win at Real Mallorca had been his best of the campaign despite the fact that he had not added to his 21 league goals. "He worked like an animal and did exactly what the team needed," Mourinho said.
Jose & Pep will have their chargers well prepared, and the team that takes their chances will win, only the fact that Real play the first leg at home does spell that Mourinho might just try and shut out Barca and catch them on the break rather than take the game to the European Champions. He did say :"The (Spanish) league is the priority, .....But tomorrow is also a great match and you want to do the best possible and use all the players if they are available." I don't think the Madrid coach cares if the Spanish press berate him for the negative tactics he sometimes uses against Barca, because with Mourinho the result is what matters full stop. Guardiola will be looking to make it his 13th win against Madrid in all competitions, knowing that his team have a physiological advantage over the Madrid team could bode well for his team if not tonight then come full time next week Wednesday at home.
In conclusion because this is a two legged affair the odds are stacked against the home team here and Barca will be quite satisfied with a score draw or even a loss provided they score as well.
My prediction is as always Real Madrid to win it (not gonna change) & with Cristiano Ronaldo proving his critics wrong.
Picture taken from www.realmadrid.com
Jade Christopher Bentley Adams (JCBA)
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