Barcelona meet Real Madrid in LaLiga on Saturday for what looks set to be another mouth-watering edition of El Clasico.
It is Zinedine Zidane’s men who go into the match with the advantage – they are six points clear at the top of the table – although Gareth Bale is out injured.
Barca will be hoping to take advantage of the Wales international’s absence and arrest a run of form that has seen them draw their last two league encounters.
Ahead of the big game, we look at the best Opta statistics.
MESSI V RONALDO
– Lionel Messi is the top goalscorer in El Clasico history, with 21 to his name.
– However, Messi has gone five matches without a goal against Madrid in all competitions – his worst run against Los Blancos.
– Of his 21 goals, Messi has scored 12 of them (57%) at the Bernabeu – a record he will look to improve at Camp Nou.
– Messi has 13 assists from his 32 appearances in El Clasico.
– Cristiano Ronaldo, meanwhile, has only won in seven of his 25 Clasico appearances.
– But he has scored 16 times in those games, giving him an almost identical goal-per-game ratio (0.64%) to Messi (0.65%).
– Like Messi, he is more successful away from home – 10 out of his 16 Clasico goals were scored at Camp Nou.
– Only Alfredo Di Stefano (18) scored more goals against Barcelona for Real Madrid than Ronaldo.
– Ronaldo, though, has only produced one assist in his 25 Clasico games.
LUIS ENRIQUE AND MSN
– Luis Enrique will face Real Madrid for the seventh time as a LaLiga boss – he has won three and lost three of his previous games (W2 L2 with Barca, W1 L1 with Celta Vigo).
– Since Luis Enrique’s first LaLiga match as a head coach, only Diego Simeone (4) has beaten Real Madrid more times.
– Messi has not scored in a Clasico match where he has been playing at the same time as both Luis Suarez and Neymar.
– Suarez is the only player to have scored twice in a Clasico where either ‘MSN’ or Real Madrid’s ‘BBC’ frontline have played together.
– Neymar is the only player of both attacking trios to have scored and assisted a goal in the same Clasico.
– Barcelona’s three defeats to Madrid is their worst record against any team under Luis Enrique (level with Celta and Real Sociedad).
– Luis Enrique won 4-0 on his last visit to the Bernabeu. Only one Barcelona manager has recorded a bigger winning margin in an away victory against Real Madrid in LaLiga.
Luis Enrique – “We are in Week 13, you can’t discount the champions from the past two seasons. There is still a long way to go” #FCBLive pic.twitter.com/sBcF6MVyDi
— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) November 27, 2016
CLASICO FACTS AND FIGURES
– The Clasico has not produced a 0-0 draw since November 2002.
– The most common Clasico result is 2-1 – it has occurred 43 times (23 of those in Madrid’s favour) in 232 games.
– The two teams have only met once before in matchday 14 of LaLiga and that game ended in a 5-5 draw back in 1943.
– Victory would give Barcelona their 50th home win over their rivals in LaLiga.
– In 86 meetings, Madrid have won on just 20 occasions in the league at Camp Nou.
– Barcelona have scored in each of their last 21 games against Real Madrid, the longest scoring run of any team in El Clasico history.
– Zidane could become the first Real Madrid manager to win consecutive away games against Barcelona since Miguel Munoz in 1965.
– Real Madrid have received 11 red cards in their last 26 games against Barcelona, four of them to Sergio Ramos.
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