Barcelona: Barcelona are the more desperate side as Real Madrid visit Camp Nou here Saturday for the first El Clasico of the season boasting a six-point lead at the top of La Liga.
Madrid have won 15 more points in all in La Liga under the guidance of Zinedine Zidane since the sides last met in April and are riding a 31-game unbeaten run in all competitions.
“On Saturday we have more to play for than Real Madrid, they can lose, we can’t,” said Barcelona defender Gerard Pique after a training session Friday.
Barca are off to their worst league start in nine seasons. However, coach Luis Enrique believes much of the media criticism of his side has been overblown, citing the institutional crisis that Barca overcame in January, his debut season in 2015 to win the treble.
“We remain favourites for all the titles, but it is evident we have to improve,” said Enrique. “We lack consistency, but don’t exaggerate. In my first season you (the media) exaggerated and we ended up winning the treble.”
The biggest match in club football is expected to capture an audience of 650 million people worldwide, according to figures released by La Liga.
Yet, the composed Zinedine Zidane refused to accept that a first Liga title in five years would be Real’s to lose should they bag victory at the Camp Nou.
“I am not thinking about the consequences,” he said after giving a goalscoring debut to his son Enzo in Madrid’s 6-1 Copa del Rey thrashing of Cultural Leonesa. “We are thinking about preparing well for the game, and, whatever happens, it will not be decisive. There’s still a lot to play for in the season.”
Both sides are blighted by injury concerns. Real will be without Gareth Bale with the Welshman now set to miss up to four months after an ankle operation, whilst Toni Kroos is also sidelined by a broken foot.
Tough tackling midfielder Casemiro made his first appearance in two months in midweek and could come into contention to partner the Croatian duo of Luka Modric and Mateo Kovacic.
Cristiano Ronaldo has shot to the top of La Liga’s goalscoring charts once more with five in his last two league outings and looks set to be partnered by Karim Benzema and Lucas Vazquez in Bale’s absence.
Barca are sweating on the fitness of Jordi Alba and Pique, who both struggled through the 90 minutes in a 1-1 draw at Real Sociedad last week.
However, the champions will be hugely boosted by the return of captain Andres Iniesta, whilst the front three of Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar are all fit to start. But even then the dreaded MSN have not exactly looked at their best in comparison to what they did last season.
Not getting credit they truly deserve
Despite being former midfield heroes for the clubs they now manage, Barcelona coach Luis Enrique and his Real Madrid counterpart Zinedine Zidane have been given little credit for their achievements in management.
The duo famously clashed on the pitch in a heated ‘Clasico’ in 2003 when Zidane grabbed Luis Enrique’s face following a rough tackle from Barca’s Carles Puyol and they will stand metres apart on the Nou Camp sidelines here Saturday.
In less than 11 months since succeeding Rafael Benitez, the Frenchman has revitalised a side that had become stale. He won the Champions League last season and has taken Real six points clear at the top of the league in this campaign.
Under the Frenchman in September, Real equalled the Liga record of 16 consecutive wins set by Barcelona in 2011 and they are two games from equalling the club’s longest-ever unbeaten streak of 34 games, which dates back to 1989-90.
Luis Enrique holds the longest unbeaten run in Spanish history, set earlier this year when Barcelona went 39 games without defeat.
Zizou (Zidane’s nickname) has also won more points in his first 33 games than any other manager in the history of La Liga, but doubts still hang over his true abilities as a coach.
Enrique has also faced plenty of questioning despite amassing silverware with Barca. The Catalans have won nine out of 11 competitions entered under his guidance, the crowning jewel being the 2015 Champions League.
A lot of the credit for those triumphs has not gone to the coach, however, but to the front three of Lionel Messi, Neymar and Luis Suarez who scored 131 goals last season and 122 in their first campaign together.
As the magic of the trio has faded this season, with Barca registering their worst points total at the same stage of the season since 2004, there has been a clamour in the Catalan media for a change in the team’s style of play in order to exert greater control in midfield. And Enrique has been blamed for the poor show.
Agencies
