These are the five concerns that the Catalan coach should have for the game to be played this afternoon:
The state of form that both Vinicius Junior and Karim Benzema are going through is worthy of placing both players among the five best players in the world. Barça have recovered their gunpowder up front, but at this point it is completely unlikely that they will be able to surpass these two players in any of the facets of the attack.
Until the moment in which the Catalan coach confirms the line-up, we will not be able to know for sure if the Uruguayan center-back will be available. If they are not, Gerard Piqué and Clement Lenglet will be in charge of trying to prevent the whites from reaching Marc-André ter Stegen’s goal. They would suppose bad news for the Barça.
If you read the players that will finally be available by the culé team, it seems incredible that so many well-known names are heard worldwide, because in the last calls only names of players from the subsidiary came out. It really is a kind of trompe l’oeil, because in real terms the Barça coach will not be able to line up the vast majority since they have just come out of their respective injuries.
A “Classic” is always a “Classic”, but the general level of both teams right now is very different. In the league championship, the meringues enjoy an advantage of 17 points over the culés. In the Copa del Rey both teams have advanced to the next round after eliminating, both with certain problems, an infinitely inferior rival. In the Champions League, Real Madrid will face PSG in the round of 16 while Barcelona is already eliminated.
A beating by the whites would leave Xavi Hernández’s team very touched for the rest of the season. Real Madrid have won four consecutive classics, but none of them has seen a crushing difference on the scoreboard.
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