Are you ready?
You better be because the weekend in front of us brings arguably the biggest football match in the world – El Clasico – between Real Madrid and Barcelona, Spain’s biggest rivals and two of the most supported teams across the planet.
The reigning World, European and Spanish champions Real Madrid head into the highly-anticipated Saturday match sitting 11 points behind their fiercest rivals and Zinedine Zidane’s charges are very much aware their title chances are all but over if they fail to beat Barcelona at Santiago Bernabeu.
La Liga table-toppers are enjoying a great run of form and will be a difficult challenge for Los Blancos who appear to be rediscovering their touch after lifting the FIFA Club World Cup trophy.
Cristiano Ronaldo vs Leo Messi
The forthcoming game between two of the world’s biggest clubs is much more than a man-to-man duel but the general perception of El Clasico over the past decade has seen Cristiano Ronaldo and Leo Messi being pushed to the front row.
In a never-ending debate over who’s better of the two, Cristiano Ronaldo and Leo Messi have been perceived as enemies both on and off the pitch, which can’t be further away from the truth.
The two iconic footballers – with ten Ballon d’Or trophies shared between them – are once again ready to put on a show and help their respective teams claim valuable victory.
Real Madrid will be hoping Cristiano Ronaldo will shake off his injury issues after the Portuguese worked separately from the group this week. Ronaldo missed Real madrid training for the second consecutive day after hurting his calf during the FIFA Club World Cup final against Gremio.
The Portuguese is working alone to gain fitness and get himself ready and should be expected to feature as the entire world is eagerly anticipating to tune in for yet another round in the fight to decide who is the supreme football deity.
Who Holds the El Clasico Upper Hand?
Having secured his fifth Ballon d’Or trophy to get himself level with Argentine wizard, Cristiano Ronaldo will head in the Saturday’s El Clasico on the back of a successful year.
His start to the new season, however, has not been up to Ronaldo’s usual standards which allowed Messi to excel. Barcelona ace is leading the goalscoring charts with 14 La Liga goals thus far and will be keen to add another one at Santiago Bernabeu.
Messi is found at 1/1 to score in El Clasico.
The Argentina international might be trailing behind Cristiano Ronaldo when it comes to trophies and individual awards in 2017 – although he did pick up a Golden Shoe as a reward for his goalscoring exploits – but Leo Messi is the undisputable king of El Clasico derbies.
Messi has scored 24 El Clasico goals to Ronaldo’s 17 and went on to win the total of 16 El Clasico matches which is double the figure Ronaldo boasts. The two of them are virtually incomparable when it comes to El Clasico assists with Leo Messi having 13 on his tally whereas Cristiano Ronaldo has thus far provided a single one.
The numbers show above indicate that Messi provides better and more significant contribution to Barcelona than Cristiano Ronaldo does for Real Madrid.
Messi’s efforts haven’t been sufficient, however, over the past two matches between the two sides with Real Madrid coming off from a double Super Cup win which resulted in a 5-1 aggregate triumph back in August.
One of those five goals was scored by Cristiano Ronaldo who is now given the betting odds of 6/7 to find the back of the net in El Clasico.
Who do you think has better chance of scoring on and winning the big match on Saturday?
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