BARCELONA entertain bitter rivals Real Madrid for the third time in just over a month and the Catalan giants will be desperate to complete an El Clasico clean sweep in the second leg of the Copa del Rey semi-final on Wednesday.
Real Madrid will almost certainly relinquish their La Liga title after far too many dropped points this season. They are now 11 points behind despite a 6-0 weekend annihilation of Valladolid.
It's been a glorious time recently for Xavi's men. They take a first leg lead to the second leg at the Nou Camp after a Eder Militao own goal gave them a 1-0 lead last month.
But that was nothing compared with the scenes of celebration when an injury time winner from Franck Kessie gave them a 2-1 comeback win against the champions at the Nou Camp a couple of weeks ago to surely all but secure the title.
They would have been disappointed to have been eliminated from the Europa League by Manchester United, but regaining their La Liga title was always going to be their priority this season and their 4-0 weekend win over Elche was their fifth in a row in all competitions including the double over Real.
How the bookies view it
Barcelona don't have to win of course, but that hasn't prevented bookies from making them 5/4 favourites with William Hill.
Real Madrid can be backed at 11/5 with bet365 and the draw is 5/2 with Paddy Power.
Recent head to heads
As stated, Barcelona have twice got the better of Real Madrid in March winning 1-0 in the Cup in the capital and 2-1 in La Liga at the Nou Camp.
This will be their fifth meeting this season and Barca won the Spanish Super Cup, while Real Madrid won the first league meeting back in October.
Players to watch
Robert Lewandowski has received a fair chunk of criticism this season depite his weekend double taking his tally to 30 in 45 for club and country. He is 49/50 with UniBet.
And of course, there will be the usual comparison with Karim Benzema, who has also had a controversial season littered with injuries. He netted a weekend hat-trick though and the Frenchman is 11/8 to score anytime with bet365.
Anything else catch the eye?
Barcelona can make it three wins out of three against their rivals- even though they don't have to win, They seem to have something of an Indian Sign recently and even a great like Carlo Ancelotti may struggle to stop them.
Real Madrid need to go for this and with both sides in good goalscoring form – albeit against poor opposition at the weekend – goals should be the way to go here.
Over 2.5 goals is surprisingly backable at 9/10 with bet365 and that looks banker material.
Both the recent meetings were remarkably consistent – seven bookings in one and six in the other and both saw huge advantages in home corners. Real won the corner count 11-2 in the Bernabeu and Barca won 8-1 in the Nou Camp.
So Paddy Power's 10/11 for Barca -1 on the corners handicap should be snapped up. Even though Real need to win, it's hard to see Barca playing any other way apart from attack.
This Coupe de la Ligue match between Barcelona and Real Madrid will be played on Apr 5, 2023 and kick off at 20:00. Check below for our tipsters best Barcelona vs Real Madrid prediction. You may also visit our dedicated betting previews section for the most up to date previews.
