The El Clasico takes center stage once again in world football this weekend as Barcelona and Real Madrid clash for the fourth time this season.
Bookmaker 10bet has the odds at 2.00 for Barca to pick up the most cards in the feisty affair. The odds are at 2.30 for Real to finish with the most bookings and at 5.00 for the two to have the same number of cards.
※ Current Odds Date & Time: March 16th, 9:00 A.M. (EST)
The classic match-up kicked off with Real’s comfortable 3-1 victory back in October but Barcelona has battled back with a couple of wins in cup competitions. They won the Spanish Super Cup against Real in January with a 3-1 scoreline and recorded a 1-0 victory in the first leg of the Spanish Cup semifinals earlier this month.
The recent success has given Barca a chance to grab three El Clasico victories on the bounce for the first time since 2011-2012. Meanwhile, it’s been four years since the last time Real went three games without a win in the fixture.
Barcelona have always had some of the best attacking talent in the world leading the charge, but the team has built its success with rock-solid defensive play this season. Xavi’s men have recorded a whopping 19 clean sheets through 25 games in La Liga and have conceded only eight goals. Both are new record numbers in the Spanish top flight.
The league’s best defense now meets the best offense. Real have netted 50 times across 25 outings in the league, getting goals from all over the place. Karim Benzema and Vinicius Junior are still the main catalysts, but the likes of Federico Valverde and Marco Asensio have also been very prolific this season.
Barca’s defense found a way to shut down the Real attack in the previous meeting but it was only the second time in the last nine head-to-head meetings Los Blancos failed to score. Getting back-to-back clean sheets in the match-up is very difficult.
The two meet with nine points separating the teams in the league. Barcelona has put itself in a great position and a victory on Sunday will pretty much wrap up this year’s title race in Spain. Real has dropped seven points in their last six league games alone and it could prove to be very costly. However, a win on Sunday would be a major boost to their hopes of defending the title.
