It’s been a long time since the Super Classic match has been so anticipated. In recent years, Real Madrid has dominated this match, winning 4 consecutive matches against Barcelona. However, this season, Los Blaugrana has risen under coach Hansi Flick. They are leading La Liga with 27 points, 3 points more than Real Madrid.
In the middle of last week in the Champions League, Real Madrid crushed Dortmund with a score of 5-2, and Barcelona also beat Bayern Munich with a score of 4-1. That helps both teams have extremely good spirits before the battle at the Bernabeu tonight.
According to the prediction of supercomputer Opta, Real Madrid still has a higher chance of winning with 45.6%. The possibility of Barcelona winning is 31%. The possibility of the match ending in a draw is 22.5%.
Real Madrid and coach Ancelotti are facing a historic opportunity. They just need to not lose to Barcelona to equal the longest unbeaten record in La Liga history established by Barcelona under coach Ernesto Valverde (from April 2017 to May 2018) with 43 matches (34 wins, 3 draws). 9).
The last time Real Madrid suffered defeat in La Liga was on September 25, 2023 against Atletico Madrid. Since then, Los Blancos have gone 42 consecutive matches without losing in this tournament (winning 31, drawing 11).
Notably, in the next round, Real Madrid will only meet the bottom team Valencia. Therefore, as long as they do not lose to Barcelona, they have a great chance to break this great record.
Vinicius Junior, who just scored a hat-trick against Dortmund in the Champions League, is very familiar with the Barcelona net. This player has participated in 7 goals in the last 4 El Clasico matches with 5 goals and 2 assists. In total, the Brazilian striker scored 7 goals in 17 matches against Barcelona. This is the opponent against which Vinicius scored the second most goals in his career, only behind Valencia (8 goals).
Meanwhile, coach Hansi Flick has helped Barcelona win 9/10 matches in La Liga this season. Their only “miss” was a 2-4 defeat against Osasuna. After a 5-0 victory over Sevilla in the previous round, Barcelona scored 33 goals in 10 matches, only Real Madrid under coach Zidane scored more goals after the first 10 matches in La Liga in the 21st century (34 goals). ).
In the top 5 European national championships, there are 9 players who have contributed to 10 or more goals. Among them, Barcelona alone has 3 people: Robert Lewandowski (12 goals, 2 assists), Lamine Yamal (4 goals, 6 assists) and Raphinha (5 goals, 5 assists).
Only three players this season scored 5 goals and had 5 or more assists. In addition to Barcelona’s Raphinha, there is also Mohamed Salah (5 goals, 5 assists for Liverpool), Cole Palmer (6 goals, 5 assists for Chelsea).
Barcelona has an extremely young squad. The average age of the football team taking the field in the match against Bayern Munich is only 24 years and 185 days. This is the club’s youngest squad in the Champions League since the match against BATE Borisov in 2011 (23 years and 93 days).
Coach Hansi Flick has to deal with a layer that is difficult to discover. Barcelona’s 5 most recent coaches, Xavi, Ronald Koeman, Quique Setién, Valverde and Luis Enrique, all failed in their first Super Classic match on the Barcelona coaching bench. The last winner in the first El Clasico was Gerardo Martino when he beat Real Madrid 2-1 in 2013.
Lamine Yamal is of course highly expected to bring a difference to Barcelona. The Euro 2024 champion has 6 assists in 10 matches. He became the player who created the most goals for Los Blaugrana since Lionel Messi in the 2014/15 season (7 times). On Real Madrid’s side, Jude Bellingham is expected. The Englishman has scored in two consecutive El Clasico matches.
