MADRID, (Reuters) – As well as a potential title decider, tomorrow’s ‘Clasico’ between bitter rivals Real Madrid and Barcelona serves up the latest installment in the goal-scoring drama featuring record-setting marksmen Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.
Leaders Real have a four-point advantage over champions Barca with five games left ahead of the clash at the Nou Camp and Ronaldo and Messi have already netted a Spanish record 41 times each in La Liga this season.
Portuguese Ronaldo, who set the previous best of 40 last term, has 53 goals in all competitions, while Argentine Messi, the man who replaced him as World Player of the Year and has won the award the past three years, has 63, including 14 in the Champions League.
He is only four short of the all-time record of 67 set by former Bayern Munich striker Gerd Mueller in the 1972-73 season.
The latest domestic showdown between the world’s two richest clubs has an added significance in that Real and Barca could meet in next month’s Champions League final as Real seek a 10th European crown and holders Barca chase a third triumph in four years and their fifth overall.
Both sides trail after their semi-final first legs, Real losing 2-1 at Bayern Munich and Barca falling 1-0 to Chelsea in London.
Spanish league champions the past three years, Barca have already beaten Real over two legs in both the Spanish Super Cup and the King’s Cup this term and they came from a goal down to win 3-1 at the Bernabeu in La Liga in December.
Should they finish level on points, the title will be decided by head-to-head record not goal difference.
Their matches rarely pass without controversy, from accusations of refereeing bias to red cards to outright brawling. Jose Mourinho famously poked Barca assistant coach Tito Vilanova in the eye during a melee earlier this season.
With the combative Portuguese at the helm, hopes were high in Madrid that Real would be able to end Barca’s domination, although he has yet to find the magic touch that brought him so much success in Portugal, England and Italy.
“It’s going to be another enormously demanding game,” Emilio Butragueno, a former Real and Spain striker now a club director, said after Tuesday’s defeat at Bayern Munich.
