Real Madrid visits Camp Nou tonight with a one point lead at the top of the table over FC Barcelona. Real Madrid has not reached their top form, and the fact that they still holds a lead over Barca say how tough this league is going to be this season. In my last post, i have written abou the El Clasico being the most pivotal matches in this season. FC Barcelona has not yet set the league on fire and has been very inconsistent away from home. But their home form has been good and we will be pinning on that to see us through this game. Guardiola has almost the entire squad back with him. After beating Inter with three of their regulars missing, confdence will not be missing in this team. Butstill Guardiola has a tough job. He has to make the call where he has to bring Messi, Ibrahmovic and Toure back to starting eleven straight after the injury lay off. Usually any injured star will be brought back into the game gradually, but then this is no ordinary match - it is the El Clasico. No player would want to miss this match.Valdes definitely will be the one expected to guard the goal. He did some mistakes against Inter with his non-sense passing and will be hoping to make none of those. Alves, Puyol Pique and Abidal will be our preferred back four. Iniesta and Xavi will provide the creativity in the middle but I don't expect Toure to feature in starting eleven. Busquets then could be the ideal defensive midfielder choice. Busquets had a great night against Inter, because he decided to remain strong. He didn't go down looking for fouls and should be looking to do the same tonight also. Messi, Ibrahmovic will definitely featurein the atatcking trio but it is not yet clear who among Pedro and Henry will feature on left. pedro has been in great form but my call will be to put Henry in as that gives more experience to the side. Pedro could be brought in the second half to add more speed to attack, if necesssary.
There have been so many war calls from different players as the El Classico build up. Real Madrid will be looking to rase the memory of the 6-2 drubbing last season. In normal circumastances any team which has gone down by such huge margin would take a defensive approach when viviting us. But then this is Real Madrid, a team assembled with more than 250 million of hard earned money. So you can expect a sensatonal attacking display from both the teams. Ronaldo is expected to feature in this game and Barca fans already looks like have great plans for his visit. This could be another sensational El Clasico match. But I don't expect Real Madrid to come to Camp Nou and shock us. I predict a 3-1 victory for Barca.