Spanish Primera Division****Venue: Santiago Bernabeu Date: Saturday 10 April Kick-off: 2100 BSTCoverage: Live text commentary on BBC Sport website, live on Sky Sports 1
**Spanish giants Real Madrid say it would be “ridiculous” to concentrate only on Barcelona superstar Lionel Messi when they meet in El Clasico on Saturday.**Messi scored four times in a stunning solo display as Barca knocked Arsenal out of the Champions League in midweek.
But Real midfielder Guti said: “We can’t concentrate on only one player when they have so many good ones, that would just be ridiculous.”
With eight games left Real and Barca are joint-top in La Liga on 77 points.
They are 21 points ahead of third-placed Valencia and the winners of Saturday’s match, which kicks off at 2100 BST, will become strong favourites to win the Spanish title.
With Barca having won the first meeting 1-0 at the Nou Camp in November they only need a draw to take over at the summit on head-to-head record.
Knowing therefore that anything other than a win would see his side lose control of their own destiny, Madrid coach Manuel Pellegrini will settle for nothing less than three points on Saturday.
“We will go out for the victory. A draw is always a bad result for my team, we’ve never gone out looking for a draw. We’ve picked up a lot of victories away from home, and more at the Bernabeu, and this game is not going to be an exception,” said Pellegrini.
“We have to show why we are leaders. We’ve always gone out to take the game to our opponents from the start and it will be no different on this occasion.”
One influential player on each side will be missing - Real Madrid’s Brazilian midfielder Kaka and Barcelona’s Swedish striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
Kaka is still suffering from a left thigh strain, according to his club, while Ibrahimovic has not recovered from a right leg problem he picked up during the warm-up to last weekend’s tie against Athletic Bilbao.
Messi has been lavished with praise from around the world since his astonishing feat in Tuesday’s 4-1 win over Arsenal, with pundits queuing up to label him the greatest footballer on earth.
Real’s Cristiano Ronaldo, who was World and European Footballer of the Year in 2008 before Messi claimed his titles in 2009, says there is much more to the match than a meeting between the pair.
“Messi and I are not the only players who will be playing and this is not an individual game,” warned Ronaldo.
"It is a great match, a very special one. But it will not be the first nor the last we play. I want to win so that we stay ahead of them in the table.
“I don’t have anything against Barcelona and we are the best teams in the championship. May the best team win and that team be Real Madrid.”
The two teams’ last two league meetings in the Bernabeu have both been lively affairs, with Real - who were already champions - thrashing Barca 4-1 in May 2008 and Barca taking revenge by hammering Real 6-2 last year on their way to the title.
But Barca defender Gerard Pique nor coach Pep Guardiola are expecting a repeat of the drubbing they gave Real when they meet in Madrid on Saturday.
“Last year’s game was amazing, I’ll never forget it,” said the former Manchester United defender.
“The memories and emotions are still very recent, but the scoreline is unrepeatable this time. However, we do hope to do our talking on the pitch.”
Guardiola added: “The 6-2 is unrepeatable. These things happen once in a lifetime, no more.”
The Barca coach also played down suggestions this weekend’s match would be the defining one of the season, although he conceded it is a key game.
“If there were only three or four games to go I would say it is an almost decisive match, but when there are seven left afterwards it’s not so much, but it is very important,” he said.This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.