El Clasico rivals Barcelona and Real Madrid will travel to Saudi Arabia to play their Supercopa de Espana semi-final on Wednesday.
The winner will come up against either Atletico Madrid or Athletic Bilbao in the final at Riyadh’s King Fahd Stadium on Sunday.
🏃♂️ Running towards the #SuperCopa like... pic.twitter.com/qhzT4bM7Xk— Real Madrid C.F. 🇬🇧🇺🇸 (@realmadriden) January 11, 2022
🏃♂️ Running towards the #SuperCopa like... pic.twitter.com/qhzT4bM7Xk
The two sides are separated by a whopping 17 points in the La Liga standings, with table-topping Real Madrid miles ahead of languishing Barcelona.
In fairness to Barca, they have improved in recent weeks. In fact, they head into Wednesday’s clash on a six-game unbeaten streak in all competitions.
Not only have they avoided defeat in each of their last five La Liga matches, but they have also lost just one of their previous ten.
It is worth pointing out, however, that Xavi’s men have only managed to score over 1.5 goals in one of their past four outings across all competitions.
They have also kept just a single clean sheet in each of their previous nine encounters, underlining their defensive struggles.
By contrast, Real Madrid are enjoying an excellent campaign. They have only lost two of their 21 La Liga games, picking up 15 wins and four draws in the process.
Carlo Ancelotti’s men are also the top scorers in La Liga, having netting 45 goals. That means they’re averaging 2.1 goals per game in the league.
Los Blancos thrashed Valencia 4-1 on Saturday, with both Karim Benzema and Vinicius Junior bagging a brace.
Benzema has notched 22 goals and eight assists in 25 appearances across all competitions this term, while Vinicius has racked up 14 goals and nine assists.
Head-to-head: Real Madrid beat Barcelona twice in 2021 and head into Wednesday’s clash on a four-game winning streak against their bitter rivals.
Barca’s last victory over Los Blancos came all the way back in March 2019. Since then, they have recorded a draw and four losses in this fixture.
Team news: Barcelona’s extensive injury list includes Sergi Roberto, Pedri, Frenkie de Jong and Eric Garcia. On a brighter note, Ansu Fati looks set to return on Wednesday.
On the flip side, Real Madrid are currently without the injured trio of Dani Carvajal, Gareth Bale and Mariano Diaz.
Although Real Madrid are enjoying a far better season than Barcelona, anything can happen when these two sides go head-to-head.
With that in mind, Forebet predicts that Real Madrid and Barcelona will play out a high-scoring draw on Wednesday – with both teams scoring over 1.5 goals.