Real Madrid vs Barcelona Preview

Barcelona return to Real Madrid just three days after they went and beat Los Blancos 3-0 in the Copa del Rey semifinal second leg, and they will be looking to further widen the gap between them at the top of the league table.

The Catalans are currently top of the Spanish league by seven points and already have a 9 points lead over Real Madrid.

This game offers them a chance to take the league title further away from the grasps of their main opponents.

Their 3-0 win over Madrid was their second consecutive win and they have all been over 2.5 goals and away from home.

Real Madrid are having an up and down season at the moment and their recent 3-0 loss to Barcelona highlighted just how far off the pace they are compared to the La Liga holders.

Los Blancos need to win to keep their title ambitions alive as a defeat could spell the end of the road for them after 26 games played.

They have lost two of their last three games, but they have also won 3 of their last 5 matches in all competitions, so it is not all bad news.

Winning here is more than for the points as they need to repair the damage of their 3-0 loss a few days back with a more convincing performance.

This is one of the tightest betting markets of the week as bookmakers have priced Barcelona up as very slight favourites to come out on top.

A rush of money could see Real Madrid go off as favourites while oddsmakers believe this will be a high-scoring game as over 2.5 goals is currently trading odds-on.

Lionel Messi is favourite to score the opening goal of the game followed by Luis Suarez, Karim Benzema and Gareth Bale.

This game gets underway at 19:45 BST.

Other fixtures taking place this week in the Spanish Primera:

Spanish Primera Table

Spanish Primera Results