Next Saturday, 25th of October 2014, a super motivated Real Madrid will measure forces with the new Barcelona of Luis Enrique, who remains undefeated at La Liga so far, at Santiago Bernabéu for round nine of the Spanish Liga BBVA, on a match that will provide the home side with the opportunity of closing the Blaugrana’s four point leading gap to just one.

Real Madrid are currently experiencing a fantastic moment, both on domestic and international competitions, and they will surely take advantage of that excellent momentum to try and impose the first defeat of the season to their all-time rivals, Barcelona.

Last Saturday, Los Blancos travelled to the Comunidad Valenciana to face Levante and the match ended in yet another goal galore and with another exquisite performance from Cristiano Ronaldo. Real Madrid won by 5-0 and the Portuguese wonderboy netted in his 15th goal of the season, more than the double of Lionel Messi’s current goal tab and the exact same amount of goals that Neymar and the Argentinean star have netted in together this term.

The tactical changes Carlo Ancelotti implemented in the team after the somewhat slow start are also proving to be the recipe behind Los Blancos’ recent success. In order to have players such as Ronaldo, Bale, James Rodríguez, Kroos, Modric and Benzema in the same starting line-up, the Italian manager was forced to reorganize his already worn 4-2-3-1 system into a classic 4-4-2 style, with Ronaldo up in the front lurking behind the team’s centre forward, Benzema or Chicharito.

For the important match against Barça, Carlo Ancelotti is not yet certain if he will be able to rely on the contribution of Varane, Coentrão and Modric, all of them currently sidelined due to injury.

As for Barcelona, the current La Liga leaders are having a dream season start as they remain undefeated after eight matches. Luis Enrique’s arrival at the helm of the team was breath of fresh air for the Catalan side after the somewhat uninspired overall performance under Tata Martino’s stewardship.

Last weekend, Barcelona experienced some difficulties to overcome La Liga’s newcomers Eibar who are in fact one the most pleasant surprises of the season so far. Although Barça managed to grant a comfortable 3-0 win, although they have scored their first goal on the 59th minute when Xavi found the way to pass ball beyond Irureta, who put up a vintage performance at Camp Nou. The Basque team had a golden opportunity to score before the break but Capa failed to place the ball inside the net.

For the Santiago Bernabéu’s clash, Luis Enrique will still not be able to count on the erratic Uruguayan striker Luis Suárez, who remains suspended until the day after El Clásico.

Both Real Madrid and Barcelona will have UEFA Champions League fixtures before Saturday’s major clash and their weekend’s performance would certainly be influenced for what might happen on their respective midweek matches.

Real Madrid

Stats: W-5 L-0 D-0

Recent Form - WWWWW

Barcelona

Stats: W-3 L-1 D-1

Recent Form - WWLWD

Possible Line-ups

Real Madrid (4-4-2) - Casillas - Carvajal - Pepe - Sergio Ramos - Marcelo - Khedira - Kroos - James Rodríguez - Ronaldo - Bale - Benzema

Barcelona (4-3-3) - Bravo - Dani Alves - Piqué - Mathieu - Jordi Alba - Mascherano - Iniesta - Rakitic - Neymar - Pedro - Messi

Prediction

Real Madrid 1 Barcelona 1