La Liga Preview: Real Madrid Vs Barcelona
For fans of Spanish football this is the most exciting weekend of the year as Real Madrid host Barcelona in a critical game in Spain's La Liga. It's always an exciting weekend when the two fierce rivals meet each other, in what is known around the world as El Clįsico, but the league position of the teams makes it an even more special occasion.
And that is just as well since it looks like there will not be any Spanish football at all next weekend after the player's union, the AFE, has called a strike for all four Spanish leagues citing unpaid wages. The AFE claims that 85% of players in the three lower tiers of Spanish football are either paid late or not paid at all and although this does not include the top tier La Liga, the strike has the support from the majority of players. The AFE is set to continue talks with the Spanish football federation on Monday in an attempt to come to an agreement and to avoid industrial action.
Barcelona are fresh from booking their ticket to the Champions League semi-final on Tuesday when they gave Arsenal some football schooling as they dominated them in a 4-1 win. Madrid, on the other hand, had a week off since they exited in the first playoff round courtesy of Lyon so there is a definite stamina advantage there. There is little to separate the recent form of the two teams with Real Madrid winning their last 12 league games, taking 40 from a possible 45 points over their last fifteen; Barcelona themselves can boast 38 points over the same period. And so we are left with two in form teams with Madrid having the best home record, with a perfect 15-0, against Barcelona with the best away record in La Liga. Despite having home advantage, the sportsbooks don't equate that to +0.5 goals in the favor of Barcelona with Pinnacle listing it as a pick 'em and Madrid being slight favorites at -110 over Barcelona at +102 (DNB).
Barcelona are without Zlatan Ibrahimovic, their striker with 20 goals this season, but defender Gerard Pique returns; both were absent from the mid-week Champions League game. Thankfully for Barcelona, Madrid are still without Brazilian Kaka who has been out for a month with a thigh injury but they do see the return of Xabi Alonso and Sergio Ramos who were both suspended for Real's last match.
And aside from the match itself, the outcome will perhaps prove to be more than one determinant of who takes the league title. Unlike a lot of other European leagues, La Liga uses a novel set of tiebreakers if two teams end the season with the same number of points. Whereas the English or German leagues use a system of goal difference and goals scored as primary factors to separate a tie, in Spain they initially take into account the head to head results between the teams not unlike the NFL in determining playoff berths. Since Barcelona were 1-0 winners when they hosted Madrid earlier in the season, a draw or better will ensure that they will win any tiebreaker in the event that both teams finish on the same number of points. If Madrid win by one goal, the head to head aspect will be equal and it would come down to goal difference and then goals scored; if Madrid win by more than one goal, they would win in any tiebreaker situation.
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Originally Posted by RogueJuror
