Real Madrid-Barcelona
Football: Spanish La Liga.
Saturday, 10th April 2010. Kickoff 22:00

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There won't be any shortage of previews and opinions on this match.For the first time in many years Spanish giants are going into the game level on points.

Real Madrid

Los Blancos are riding a 12 match winning streak, which has allowed them to catch up on Barcelona. Galacticos are not involved in any other competition having successfully crashed out from Copa Del Rey and the Champions League.

Real has a massive 15-0-0 home record at the moment with an even more frightening 50-13 goal difference.

Coach Manuel Pellegrini is without Brazilian Kaka who has not managed to recover in time for the big game. Probably Granero will get the opportunity to deputize instead of his team-mate.

Barcelona

Barca is still in contention for 2 titles at the moment: La Liga and the Champions League. Tough schedule is certainly a disadvantage, but the Catalans are more then used to playing twice a week.

Barca progressed to the Champions League semifinals in spectacular fashion after Messi single-handedly scored 4 goals against Arsenal. "Best player of the world" is simply unstoppable now and will obviously be treated with extra attention on Saturday evening.

Guardiola can't count on Zlatan Ibrahimovic and left back Eric Abidal. Both players are relatively important, but not irreplacable. Krkic-Messi-Pedro should form the offensive triangle once again, although, I feel, Henry could send Bojan to the bench.

Betting advice

I expect the Messi-factor to have the biggest impact on the match. Strongly doubt Real has the defensive quality to stop the Argentinean from putting a couple of goals past Casillas.

Real does not have the winning mentality unlike Barca.Moreover Galacticos have already lost some of their "important" fixtures during this season, which lead to elimination from the Cups.

The Statistics :

HANDICAP BETTING :

Take Barcelona (AH+0) @ 2.00 with Bet365