Friday 1 April 2016 11:23, UK
Barcelona host Real Madrid on Saturday evening in the hotly-anticipated Clasico.
Luis Enrique's La Liga leaders thrashed their arch rivals at the Bernabeu 4-0 earlier this season and will aim to do the double over Los Blancos to maintain their push for back-to-back Spanish titles.
But Zinedine Zidane's men will be out for revenge - so who will come out on top?
From BBC v MSN to Real Madrid's defence, Guillem Balague looks at the five issues which will decide the Clasico...
1. Marcelo v Dani Alves
Offensively speaking, Marcelo has possibly been Real Madrid's most influential player this season, which is saying something when you consider he is officially a full-back.
But it's precisely this unpredictable, gung-ho, swash-buckling, up and at 'em approach to the game - an approach that sees him plough down the wing, sometimes in midfield, other times up front - that has been used to great effect by Real Madrid this season.
This can of course create its own problems not least because it frequently leaves the Madrid defence short staffed, although he is no slouch in a defensive capacity, particularly on a one-on-one basis, despite being prone to lapses in concentration particularly when defending diagonal balls crossed from the other side of the pitch.
This is a problem he shares with Barcelona's Dani Alves, a player cast in a very similar mould with the same attitude to the game and the same potential to be a game-changer.
Lately Alves seems to have lost a bit of that amazing engine he used to have and he still doesn't cross the ball with the quality that matches his play leading up to it. He is also slightly more prone to making mistakes than Marcelo and if I had to pick one over the other I would opt for the Real Madrid defender, simply because he is more important to Real than Alves is to Barcelona.
2. The BBC v MSN
You have to go back to April 2012 and the Mourinho era to find the last time Real Madrid won a league match at the Camp Nou - and it's worth remembering that they have never beaten Barcelona when Karim Benzema, Gareth Bale and Cristiano Ronaldo have been on the pitch together. The two sides have met three times with the BBC line up in place, and lost every time.
That said, if the rest of the side remains solid and balanced this is a triumvirate that can give any defence - including Barcelona's - sleepless nights.
Occasionally Barcelona - partly out of laziness, partly because they're pretty good at it - abandon their possession game and look for a more direct box-to-box approach to their opponent's goal. Nothing wrong with that, except that it can leave them more vulnerable because they cannot recover the ball so quickly, neither can they work so well as a unit together to regain possession.
If that happens it could open the door for Bale and Benzema - probably even more than Cristiano - to exploit the situation. Ronaldo might well be the player to score but in terms of creating something should Barcelona go for this approach, this could be a match tailor made for his two colleagues up front.
Mind you, if you're looking for anyone guaranteed to give just about every defence in the world an attack of the vapours then the Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez, and Neymar combination that Barcelona put out each week stands apart from just about anything on show in football today.
With the 'three amigos' up front this is a Barcelona side that frequently lose control of a game, and are happy to do so, safe in the knowledge that eventually the ball will get to one of their three 'assassins' with the result that something is always likely to happen.
In terms of firepower available to them this Barcelona side's big guns are bigger than, not just Saturday's opponents, but any opponents, anywhere. If I had to choose I would have the MSN.
3. Real Madrid centre-backs and Casemiro
If Barcelona are going to look to control the game a bit more - and bearing in mind they are playing at home so they should certainly be able to do so - then the key to the match could well be the performances of the two centre-backs of Real Madrid and defensive midfielder Casemiro, who will play just in front of them.
How they defend against any such onslaughts will be crucial not least because it's also safe to assume that for at least some of the time Casemiro will probably be gainfully employed covering Marcelo's back as the full-back makes his customary advances into enemy territory.
Similarly, he will also have his work cut out covering for Toni Kroos and Luka Moric, should they decide to venture forward as well.
Casemiro is a long way from being at the level of Sergio Busquets, although to be fair to him, the way Busquets is playing at the moment, who is?
What Casemiro does do, however, is provide the work rate, the perspiration, if not necessarily the inspiration, that this Real Madrid side needs if it is to function anywhere near its best.
Personally, I don't think he is quite good enough to stay in that position next season and I feel that Madrid will be looking to strengthen in that area sooner rather than later. For now, however, his performance this weekend could be crucial.
4. Inside midfielders
In terms of the inside midfielders it is a straight battle between Real Madrid's Kroos and Modric on one hand and Barcelona's Andres Iniesta and Ivan Rakitic on the other.
Modric is a fine player who always looks to control the game but has all too frequently this season been left to do so on his own.
For that Kroos must take his share of the blame because for much of the season he has shown himself to be less effective going forward, too slow in the build up, and below par defensively. He is not having the best of times and I think that's partly because he is not enjoying his football at Madrid.
He isn't a number four in front of the defence, which he enjoyed doing at Bayern sometimes, and he also seems to lack the freedom he needs when going forward to make a real impact, not least because he has to cover for the lack of defensive work done by the likes of Cristiano and Benzema.
He looks to me to be a man not too happy in his work. In an ideal world he probably never wanted to leave Bayern Munich and I'm sure these days his mind is elsewhere and he is thinking about new projects.
Modric of course will have to work his socks off. He was one of the players who defended Rafa Benitez inside the camp but he is mature enough to realise that it's now time to move on and in fact he has been saying some very complimentary things about Zinedine Zidane lately.
He is the key figure for Madrid in terms of control of the game, but I can't help but feel he won't be able to do it by himself.
Rakitic and Iniesta are a perfect fit for Barcelona. When Iniesta is on song, it's about as good as you can get from a midfielder.
This season the club has made a conscious decision to use his talents more sparingly with a view to getting the very best from him in major games like this and also for the latter stages of the Champions League campaign that are just around the corner.
So far we have seen, occasionally, almost in cameo roles, the best Iniesta ever and he is in the view of some, the best midfielder ever to grace the Nou Camp, which, when you look at some of the other contenders, is saying something.
In that vital inside midfield slot he is ably assisted by the excellent Rakitic, who is now adding goals to the work rate he has always provided. He is a man who has readily accepted and fitted into his new role at Barcelona.
Rakitic's new job requires a huge amount of running and effort, primarily because it comes with the territory with any side that plays such an open game. It is very different to the role he had at Sevilla that saw him as the main instigator of any attacks and the side's true leader.
He is having a fantastic season and from an inside midfield point of view this Barcelona side is currently far superior both mentally and tactically.
5. The collective answers
So what's going to happen?
It's impossible not to be impressed with a Barcelona side that can switch with such ease from a counter attacking game to one of control via possession.
That's the good news, although I still believe in terms of their tactical levels this is not a side that possess the same acumen required to break down a deep-lying defence that they had during the reign of Pep Guardiola.
At times, however, they are so comfortable with the notion of getting the ball up front quickly that they can easily lose control.
The plus side of that is the addition to their already varied box of tricks of a number nine in Suarez, who has added this weapon of counter attack to their armoury. From an offensive point of view this is probably the final piece in the jigsaw and what almost certainly makes them, currently, the best side in Europe.
As for Real Madrid, Zidane started with the idea of keeping control of the ball and recovering it high up the pitch, only to abandon it when it dawned on him that he didn't have the players either capable, willing, or both, to adopt such a game plan.
He realises that this means his side now looks to the performances of individuals rather than rely on the team ethic. As a result much of the collective plans envisaged by his predecessor have been sacrificed.
The addition of Casemiro, and also on occasions Danilo, means that a modicum of defensive balance can be restored but it remains nonetheless a team that doesn't pressure well, doesn't attack cleverly and doesn't defend as a team either.
That is Real Madrid's biggest downfall particularly in the big games and that's why I believe Barcelona will maintain their winning record over their main rivals.
Watch Barcelona v Real Madrid, live on Sky Sports 1 HD from 7pm on Saturday. Or watch live for £6.99 without a contract, on NOW TV.
