Real face Barça and its season

What if the week ending Sunday at 11 p.m. for Real Madrid sounded the death knell for the Madrid season? The defeat at Levante last Sunday (1-0) installed doubt in the White House, the defeat at home against Manchester City in the Champions League Wednesday (1-2) did not help. At the time of receiving Barça on the occasion of the Clasico, Real Madrid has no room for error.

The two teams stand in two points

If he still needed, the classification of Liga gives this Clasico an additional interest. At the head of the championship after 25 days, Barcelona have a two point lead over Real Madrid thanks to the two recent missteps of the Merengue against poorly classified, against Celta Vigo (2-2) then Levante (1 -0). "It's a bad pass," conceded Zinedine Zidane after the defeat against Manchester City on Wednesday evening. A success against the sworn enemy would allow his men to take the lead and start again, a success would blacken a month of February already tarnished by the various performances. It has been three years since such a duality had appeared. The last time the two teams found themselves in such a double-edged configuration, Real had triumphed, to resume the title five years after the last (2017). However, if the issue of the ranking is obvious, "nothing will be final" assures us Omar da Fonseca, which we will naturally find in the comments of the match on the antenna of beIN Sports Sunday at 9pm. More than the simple accounting issue of the ranking, "we are in front of a match that has a dimension beyond 90 minutes, reminds us the Argentinian consultant, where the players have an adrenaline higher than normal." A dimension so special that makes this match the rendezvous in mondovision of the football planet.

The specter of a white season

The Champions League raised in Kiev in 2018 is the last major trophy to have found its place in the gigantic list of Real Madrid. It is not the Spanish Supercup gleaned this winter that will be enough to satiate a club with such appetite. If talking about a period of scarcity would certainly be far too hasty, a new season without a headline would be a task for the White House. “Real Madrid is in a very complicated situation. The weight of this match is on them ”, certifies Omar da Fonseca. While the defeat at home against Manchester City (1-2) has just seriously undermined the conquest of a 14th Champions League, a domestic 34th coronation would certainly make the happiness of "Los Blancos" and their socios. As much, if not less, than beating (again) Barcelona. Can they only afford it?

Can Real beat Barça?

Real Madrid's last victory over their rival in the league dates back almost four years. On April 2, 2016, Cristiano Ronaldo silenced Camp Nou a few minutes before the end to win with his partners on a land of the most hostile (1-2). Problem of size, Cristiano Ronaldo left and since his departure, whatever the competition, Real has never taken the measure of his contested rival. To this problem is added the absence of its designated replacement, Eden Hazard - potentially unavailable until the end of the season -, and the whole offensive sector seems breathless (46 goals this season in La Liga, i.e. 18 less than Barça). “It is a team that scores little. (…) Today if you can neutralize Benzema, who else can score? ” wonders Omar da Fonseca, worried about the firepower of Madrid during major events. While Real has not won at Santiago-Bernabeu since February 1 (1-0 against Atlético) and Barça has emerged victorious from the last three duels in the capital, the results do not inspire much celebration. side of the Merengue. No more than the terribly soporific first leg (0-0 on December 18), far from the standards of such a classic. The voice of Spanish football on beIN Sports is resolutely optimistic: "There will be goals and the match will be good." We would be grateful to him for being right.

Read also

• Liga ranking