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Real Madrid are nine points behind Barcelona in the La Liga table and need to get a home win against the league leaders if they are to retain their faint hopes of becoming champions. The week hasn't gone well for them so far with a 3-0 home loss to Barcelona in the second leg of their Copa del Rey semi-final, losing 4-1 on aggregate. Now comes the El Clasico league game and Madrid have to be at the very top of their game. That hasn't always been the case this season with seven league defeats including three at home. Two of those have happened in 2019 with surprise losses to Real Sociedad and Girona.
Barcelona have a seven-point lead over Atletico Madrid and come into this game unbeaten in their last ten games in all competitons. Their last defeat was at Sevilla in the Copa del Rey and they are on a 13-game unbeaten league run. Away from home, they have won eight out of 12 league games with eight wins and the only loss was at Leganes, They've won five of their last six away league games scoring 17 goals and only conceding three. Barcelona will have had their confidence boosted by the win in midweek and can get another vital victory.
Real Madrid an cut the gap at the top of La Liga to 6 points with a win here and anything less will probably end any hope they have of winning the Spanish league this season. 4 of their last 5 games in La Liga have seen both teams score and this one should be an open game seeing what's at stake. 5 of the last 6 La Liga meetings between these two power houses of Spanish football have also seen both teams score so BTTS seems likely here.