Having won seven of their last nine matches overall in La Liga, Sunday’s hosts, Real Madrid, will be in confident mood ahead of their El Clasico encounter with Barcelona at the Bernabeu as the hosts look to overhaul their visitors into 2nd spot.
A top four finish for Real Madrid already looks assured as they hold a commanding 17-point margin over 5th placed Real Sociedad and they’ll be heading into this tasty clash with Barcelona on the back of three straight wins on the trot in La Liga with victories over Elche, Celta Vigo and Eibar respectively.
Koeman: "what time is it?" ⌚: "time for El Clásico" pic.twitter.com/01EjX2640k— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) April 8, 2021
Koeman: "what time is it?" ⌚: "time for El Clásico" pic.twitter.com/01EjX2640k
Real Madrid possess a strong looking record at the Bernabeu having won 10, drawn 1 and lost 3 along with possessing the joint-best defensive record at home in the division, having kept seven clean sheets at home so far this season.
The hosts are expected to be without a trio of defenders Carvajal, Ramos and Varane along with forward Edin Hazard for this meeting.
Barcelona are also enjoying a rich vein of form in La Liga at the moment as Ronald Koeman’s side have won 13 of their last 14 matches in the Spanish top flight while they are unbeaten in their last 19 matches overall.
This sustained impressive sequence of results has lifted Barcelona into 2nd place and just a point behind the current La Liga leaders, Atletico Madrid, who have stumbled in recent weeks and Barcelona have been quick to exploit this.
Barcelona have also shown character and resilience to thrust themselves back into contention for another La Liga title this season as the start of the campaign saw Barcelona pick up just one win out of their opening five matches of the season away from home.
The visitors have since rallied in impressive fashion by winning their last nine away matches on the trot and now look in ominous form ahead of this upcoming crucial El Clasico match-up against Real Madrid at the Bernabeu where they’ve had considerable success in recent previous trips.
Barcelona will be without defender Pique, midfielder Coutinho and forward Fati for this outing.
Real Madrid have struggled against Barcelona at home in previous El Clasico encounters as Barcelona have won three of their last four visits to Madrid and the visitors look in good shape to get something out of this trip too.