Real Madrid vs Barcelona: 5 reasons why Barca will win important Clasico

2. The advantage of Lionel Messi

Playing at home is one advantage but having Lionel Messi is perhaps the biggest advantage of all. No, literally, you could be playing a team of 12 men and just having Lionel Messi would counteract the excess.

Lionel Messi is the greatest player in the world and he won last year’s Ballon d’Or for a reason. Messi is always goal-hungry and given the absence of Luis Suarez, he will be hoping to get his name on the score sheet. Either way, he’s bound to have an impact.

3. Barcelona are unbeaten in the last five meetings

Remember how I said league positions are in no way indicative? Well, a number of these meaningless stats are starting to pop up which makes them harder to brush aside.

Did you know that, via Squawka, Barcelona have not lost any of their last five meetings with Real Madrid? There have been some astonishing scorelines too. My personal favourite was back in 2018 when Barcelona hammered Real Madrid five goals to one.

Barcelona will have all the confidence heading into this match. While Quique Setien is inexperienced managing El Clasico, the players he’ll select will have Zidane’s number and they won’t settle for anything less than a win.