A classic that can decide the League

Barcelona and Real Madrid will compete at the Camp Nou in a duel with different goals, but in which the League goes to both. For culée, it could be the final game, the one that will allow them to deliver the coup de grace to their eternal rival, pushing them to 12 points and practically sealing the championship. The Whites arrive at the match aware that it is the last shot and that only with a victory would they reopen the fight for the title from which they are now removed. All or nothing, a true league final.

Barcelona have in their hands the possibility of leaving them four games behind the runners-up with twelve days to go, an almost insurmountable distance.

With that opportunity flying above the atmosphere, the local team will come to the Camp Nou and arrive at the event transformed into Mr. Hyde. The Culés have changed their style, mutated into a team that adapts to all the circumstances of the game and is no longer afraid of unocerism. This year, the tactical drawing varies at will, and this is exactly the big unknown in the Barca team. “But what about 1-0? Given the choice, I prefer 4-0 or 5-4, but it’s difficult to score goals, people defend well. To win 1-0 is a fantastic result, a real miracle. What’s the problem ?”, assured Xavi when asked about it.

The coach could bet on the 4-4-2 that brought him such a good result at the Santiago Bernabéu in the Copa del Rey in a drab but effective matchup, or revert to the 4-3-3 he used, without going any further, in the last league match against Athletic Club.

Without Pedri and Dembélé

Regardless of the model, Barcelona will have to face the event without two of their key players. They will not be there due to injuries to Pedri and Dembélé, whose places in the eleven could be taken by Kessié and Raphinha. But Lewandowski is, returning to the classics with the aim of finally being decisive on the big stage.

Ahead will be an opponent who gambled practically all of his league options in 90 minutes. Real Madrid’s path to the title inevitably involves closing the gap on their eternal rivals at the Camp Nou and waiting from there until the end of the season for the Catalans, already eliminated from European competitions, to slow down and drop points.

Two precedents

There is no other way for Real Madrid and it is, therefore, the final for survival for the team that started looking at Barcelona with different eyes in the last games. The Whites fell in the Spanish Supercup classic (1-3) and repeated in the King’s Cup duel (0-1) just over two weeks ago. It will be the first enemy that Ancelotti’s men will face, and they will have to overcome the spirit of determination against a team that seems to have taken its measure in the last matches.