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Sunday - football day in Spain. Today, the two strongest clubs of the "Primera" league - Madrid's "Real" and "Barcelona" - come face to face.
Tournament: Spanish "Primera" Championship Stadium: "Santiago Bernabeu" (Madrid) Referee: Alberto Undiano Date and Time: 2014-03-23, 22:00
The second "El Clasico" match of this season's Spanish championship moves to the "Santiago Bernabeu" stadium, where Carlo Ancelotti's team will look to prove their superiority. However, the Catalans have nowhere to retreat and cannot afford to lose.
Madrid's "Real" In the first "El Clasico" match of the season, the capital's club suffered a defeat against "Barcelona", but the second meeting will take place in Madrid's fortress, where the last time the "whites" lost was last September.
In their last match, "Real" celebrated victory. In the UEFA Champions League, the Madrid team once again defeated Gelsenkirchen's "Schalke" with a score of 3-1. Meanwhile, last weekend in the Spanish championship, "Real" had a hard time and only narrowly beat "Malaga".
In the "Primera" championship for most of the season, the "royal" club was in third place, but taking advantage of their opponents' failures, C.Ancelotti's players are now at the top of the standings, with a 3-point advantage over Madrid's "Atletico" and 4 points over "Barca".
Barcelona will have to be wary of the attacking leaders of the "Real" team (AFP photo) In the ranks of the Madrid team, we will not see three players - Alvaro Arbeloa, Jese Rodriguez, and Sami Khedira. The latter two attacking players will not appear on the field this season. The good news for the "whites" is that all the main players are completely healthy and ready for the match.
Projected starting lineup for "Real": Diego Lopez Daniel Carvajal - Pepe - Sergio Ramos - Marcelo Luka Modric - Xabi Alonso - Angel Di Maria Gareth Bale - Karim Benzema - Cristiano Ronaldo
Barcelona Gerardo Martino's task before this match is to motivate the players to fight only for victory. "Barcelona" will have confidence after the first match, but taking points away from the hosts at the "Santiago Bernabeu" stadium will be extremely difficult.
Before the match in Madrid, the Catalans were in good form. "Barcelona" demolished Pamplona's "Osasuna" in front of their own fans with a score of 7-0. It was not easy in the Champions League for the Spanish champions, but they defeated a strong opponent, "Manchester City", by a score of 2-1, even though they were defeated by Real Valladolid in the league before these matches.
The Barcelona city team had been leading the "Primera" league for a long time this season, but now they are in third place, with just one win separating them from the top two clubs. Therefore, it is crucial for "Barca" not to lose points to Madrid.
Neymar promises to punish D.Lopez again (SIPA photo) In this match, Barcelona has no injuries and will also be able to play with their strongest lineup. Isaac Cuenca and Jonathan Dos Santos are injured, but they are on the bench for Barca.
Projected starting lineup for "Barcelona": Victor Valdes Dani Alves - Javier Mascherano - Gerard Pique - Jordi Alba Xavi - Sergio Busquets - Cesc Fabregas Neymar - Lionel Messi - Iniesta
Previous meetings: "Barcelona" 2 - 1 "Real Madrid" (2013) "Real Madrid" 2 - 1 "Barcelona" (2013) "Barcelona" 1 - 3 "Real Madrid" (2013) "Real Madrid" 1 - 1 "Barcelona" (2013) "Barcelona" 2 - 2 "Real Madrid" (2012)
Real's last five matches: "Schalke" 1 - 6 "Real Madrid" (Champions League) "Atletico Madrid" 2 - 2 "Real Madrid" ("Primera") "Real Madrid" 3 - 0 "Levante" ("Primera") "Malaga" 0 - 1 "Real Madrid" ("Primera") "Real Madrid" 3 - 1 "Schalke" (Champions League)
Barcelona's last five matches: "Real Sociedad" 3 - 1 "Barcelona" ("Primera") "Barcelona" 4 - 1 "Almeria" ("Primera") "Real Valladolid" 1 - 0 "Barcelona" ("Primera") "Barcelona" 2 - 1 "Manchester City" (Champions League) "Barcelona" 7 - 0 "Osasuna" ("Primera")
