Real Madrid Vs. Barcelona, El Clasico 2011: Both Teams Win In Champions League; Los Blancos Face Cules Saturday

Luck may well be less necessary this season, with Madrid a much improved side and in fantastic form to boot, but it will still play a big part. The hosts might be slight favourites for the match on Saturday, but as Gabe Lezra from SB Nation Los Blancos blog Managing Madrid points out, they’ll need the little things to go in their favour in order to get the win that will cement their place as title favourites:

In a match between Real Madrid and Barcelona, there’s scope for any number of things to happen. This is a fixture that’s never been short of controversy before, and there’s no reason for that to change this time around. It’s almost a reason to root against the hosts, because if Mourinho has a little bit of luck go against his side and that leads to a loss, we’re going to have some hilarious post-game commentary.

Over at SB Nation’s Barcelona blog, Barca Blaugranes, Arron Duckling senses a chance to prick the Real Madrid bubble. So far this season, Mourinho’s side have been better at dispatching minnows than have the defending champions. But ultimately, that’s unlikely to mean much. Success and failure for both sides will be depend on the head to head matchups. Last year, these two teams played five times, and despite Madrid coming away with the Copa del Rey, Barcelona smashed them in the league and pipped them to the Champions League final.

We’re not going to see five Clasicos again (my fingers hope that’s true, at least), but that doesn’t make this match any less important. Madrid have yet to prove that they can beat an enemy that’s approaching legendary status. Pep Guardiola’s team has no such worry. As Arron says, there are unanswered questions, and there’s no reason to think that Barcelona will simply roll over:

It’s another round of the never-ending s---storm that engulfs Spain (and most of the soccer-loving world) between twice and (at most) eight times every year: Real Madrid will host arch-rival FC Barcelona at the Santiago Bernabéu stadium, much to the delight of many (and to the annoyance of others). Whatever your take on el clásico--and trust me, I have, like six different “takes”--you’d be a fool (or a non-soccer fan, or a Justin Bieber stalker lover) to miss it. (Just in case you were wondering, and you probably were, there’s some sort of Justin Bieber special airing on some channel at the same time as the clásico Saturday night.)

You know what? I just cannot understand Levante. And I’m considering giving up. All of my instincts are telling me that Sevilla are just going to run them over. But man, have I been wrong in the past.

In the spring of 2011, Real Madrid and Barcelona played a series that was without precedent in modern football. In less than a month, the two teams played a total of four matches across three competitions. One was a cup final, with the other three matches establishing the favorite to win La Liga and the UEFA Champions League. For the first 284 minutes of that series, Barcelona failed to score from open play.

Barcelona was probably the better side in that match. The Copa Del Rey final was a fairly even encounter. Barcelona were probably the better side in the first Champions League match as well, but they weren’t able to find a goal until after Pepe was sent off. Barcelona won the series and they deserved to win the series, but they did not look flawless in doing so.

Starting without both of Özil and Kaka is a gamble on Mourinho’s part, but between his Champions League triumph with Inter Milan and Real Madrid’s victory in last season’s Copa Del Rey Final, he’s earned the benefit of the doubt.

For more on the two teams, head over to Real Madrid blog Managing Madrid and FC Barcelona blog Barca Blaugranes. Check out SB Nation Soccer and our El Clasico StoryStream for more in the build-up to the game. For more from around the world of football, follow @SBNationSoccer on twitter.

For more on the two teams, head over to Real Madrid blog Managing Madrid and FC Barcelona blog Barca Blaugranes. Check out SB Nation Soccer and our El Clasico StoryStream for more in the build-up to the game. For more from around the world of football, follow @SBNationSoccer on twitter.

It wasn’t. Within minutes of kickoff, Kaka had threaded a lovely through pass to Jose Callejon, who made no mistake in dispatching his shot past Kenneth Vermeer to make it 1-0. Despite going down, Ajax played well in the first half and carved out a number of opportunities including two goals which were bizarrely disallowed for offside. Gonzalo Higuain made it 2-0 shortly before halftime, but the hosts by no means deserved to be trailing.

It was a similar story in the second half, with Ajax playing well and simply unable to score. Meanwhile, Lyon were racking up a silly-looking win over Dinamo Zagreb, eventually dispatching their opponents 7-1 to more than make up the goal difference required to knock Ajax out. The Eredivisie side, apparently secure in their knowledge that everything was going to be fine, did little of note in the latter stages of the game, and it was all too easy for Callejon to get a second in stoppage time, consigning Ajax to the Europa League and capping off a crazy Champions League day.

Game Date / Time: Tuesday, December 6. 2:45 pm ET, 7:45 pm GMT, 8:45 pm local

Venue: Camp Nou, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain

Barcelona could and should have had more, with Andres Iniesta having a legitimate goal ruled out for no reason whatsoever very late in the match, but you don’t protest disallowed goals too much when you’re beating a team by five, and the hosts will be perfectly content with the results. They’re still three points off the top, but that was a strong message sent to Jose Mourinho and company.

Angel di Maria scored the opener in the 34th minute after plenty of Madrid dominance. It was a fantastic bad angle left-footed shot by the in-form Argentinian, who has emerged as one of Madrid’s most important players this season. The game felt over at that point, but Madrid added two more for good measure.

For more on this week’s La Liga action, including live coverage, check out our La Liga Week 14 StoryStream. For more on the Blaugranas, check out Real Madrid blog Managing Madrid. For more around the entire world of football, check out SB Nation Soccer.