Barcelona and Real Madrid once again find themselves at the top of the La Liga table, and with every new season comes their highly-anticipated battles against each other.
This Saturday, Real, sitting at third place in the league with 18 points, will travel to the Bernabeu following a 3-0 Champions League victory over Liverpool yesterday. First-place Barcelona has also enjoyed triumph in soccer’s renowned tournament, defeating Eredivisie club Ajax, 3-1, on Tuesday.
High-priced transfers of both squads and their franchise, world-best stars, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, go head-to-head as both will attempt to establish their dominance.
But, knowing the immense hype surrounding the Ronaldo-Messi matchup, the Portuguese international believes only the contest’s outcome is significant, not the La Liga goal record at stake for his Argentine counterpart.
“I won’t be playing against Messi — I’ll be playing against Barcelona. Leo Messi and myself are both close to it (the record) now, but it’s not something that worries me. The most important thing is to win and play well,” he said, via ESPN FC.
Ronaldo’s other big concern, beside his focus on winning this rivalry fixture, revolves around the spacing of his games, considering Los Blancos played just last night.
“I don’t really understand why we are playing on Saturday after having played tonight,” he said. “They don’t take care of the details — el clasico is the most important game.”
“I don’t get it. Big games like el clasico need to be looked at in another way — it should really be played on Sunday, not Saturday. Any professional will tell you that it’s not the same having two days to recover from a game like this than having three days.”
Prediction Today: Madrid win 3-2 [Ronaldo a brace, Benzema for Madrid Vs Messi and Neymar for Barca]