adminMADRID. — Real Madrid boss Zinedine Zidane intends to enjoy his first experience of coaching in El Clasico as his side travel to Barcelona today faced with the daunting task of ending the European soccer champions 39-game unbeaten run.
Barca lead third-placed Madrid by 10 points in the Spanish La Liga with just eight games remaining, but Zidane believes his side can emerge victorious at the Camp Nou if they continue the same form they showed in winning five consecutive matches before a two-week international break.
“The fans want to see good football and I want to see my team as it has been recently,” said Zidane yesterday.
“Clasicos are the most beautiful thing in football for a player. Now I am going to live it as a coach. It is the first, but I am very happy and will enjoy it.”
The only previous meeting between the sides this season wasn’t enjoyable at all for those of a Madrid persuasion as Barca took the Santiago Bernabeu by storm with a 4-0 thrashing of Rafael Benitez’s Real side.
However, Zidane insisted he hasn’t spoken to his players about that match.
“The players know what happened. It is a different game to the first one. It is one we have to win and want to win.
“I have seen it and analysed it, but I haven’t spoken to the players about it.”
Madrid’s realistic hopes of landing a trophy this season appear to be in the Champions League, where they face Wolfsburg in the first leg of their quarter-final tie on Wednesday.
Zidane insisted he won’t reserve any players with the trip to Germany in mind.
Yet, having won the Champions League in his first season as a player at the Bernabeu in 2002, Zidane is conscious that he needs to deliver results between now and the end of the campaign to secure his position as coach for next season.
“The important thing is to win. I know because I was a player at this club,” he added.
Barcelona will honour legendary former player and coach Johan Cruyff as they look to inflict more misery upon eternal rivals Real Madrid in the El Clasico today.
The most watched game in world football is Barca’s first since Cruyff passed away last week at the age of 68 after a short battle with cancer. A pre-match display involving over 90 000 fans will read “thank you Johan” with the same message carried on the Barca players’ shirts.
“In what is a special match, it is without doubt extra motivation for us to try and win the game,” said Barca captain Andres Iniesta.
Meanwhile, today’s meeting between Barcelona and Real Madrid pits the two most expensive strike forces in history against one another. Here, we look at the numbers behind the six men hoping to land Spain’s Pichichi prize for La Liga’s top marksmen.
Cristiano Ronaldo (28 goals)
Much criticised for not reaching his usual heights this season, Ronaldo is still La Liga’s top scorer thanks in large part to having played every minute of the league season so far.
Ronaldo hasn’t scored in four games against opponents in La Liga’s top four, but has looked back close to his best in recent weeks with seven goals in his last five games and is tied with Raul as the third highest scorer in Clasico history with 15 against Barca.
Luis Suarez (26 goals)
Finally free from suspension and controversy to play a full season, Suarez has become Barca’s top scorer this season with 43 in 43 games in all competitions, 26 of which in La Liga.
Such is the ease with which Barca have been winning, suspicions in Madrid have arisen that Messi’s decision to pass a penalty into Suarez’s path against Celta Vigo in February and allow him to take spot-kicks against Sporting Gijon and Rayo Vallecano were with the intention of aiding his challenge to Ronaldo to top the scoring charts.
Yet, the penalty spot is the one place from which the Uruguayan hasn’t been deadly as his efforts against Sporting and Rayo were both saved.
Lionel Messi (22 goals)
Despite missing two-months of the season due to knee ligament damage and playing a greater role as creator since Suarez’s arrival last season, a surge of 24 goals since the turn of the year, 16 in La Liga, have Messi in the hunt for a fourth Pichichi. The five-time World Player of the Year is also tantalisingly close to another significant milestone as he needs just one more to reach 500 career goals after registering his 50th for Argentina as they saw off Bolivia in midweek.
Neymar (21 goals)
After a brief mid-season dip the Brazilian has come back into goalscoring form with four in three games before the recent international break. His best run came in Messi’s absence earlier in the campaign with nine in six La Liga games in October and November, culminating in a sensational performance as Barca inflicted a humiliating 4-0 thrashing on Madrid.
Karim Benzema (20 goals)
The Frenchman has significantly the best minutes per goal ratio in La Liga with one every 78 minutes he’s on the pitch. Staying there has been Benzema’s trouble in a season disrupted by injury and off-field scandals, but he is already just one off his best ever tally in a Liga campaign.
Gareth Bale (15 goals)
Injuries have also ravaged Bale’s season, but the Welshman’s impressive strike rate of 15 in just 16 league starts also has him on course for his best goalscoring season since arriving in Spain three years ago.
Bale has just one El Clasico goal to his name, but it was his most spectacular one in a Madrid shirt as he ran half the length of the field before slotting home to win the Copa del Rey final in 2014. — AFP.
Online Reporter