Off the wire
Chinese police college enrolls foreign masters students  • Major news items in leading German newspapers  • Xinhua summary of Asia-Pacific stocks news at 1100 GMT, March 19  • Tianjin closes coal-fired power plant to cut pollution  • Roundup: Earth Hour 2015 campaign launched in Vietnam  • Urgent: One Briton killed in Tunisia attack: media  • Indian, Pakistan troops hold flag meeting in Kashmir  • Merkel says Greece must understand help as obligation  • Gov't issues guideline on investment management reform  • 1st LD Writethru: Afghan Uruzgan provincial police chief killed  
You are here:   Home

EL Clasico: decisive main course in Spain's matchday 28

Xinhua, March 19, 2015 Adjust font size:

The 'Clasico' between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid is without doubt the main dish on the football menu for matchday 28 in Spain.

The match between the two biggest clubs in Spain looks set to decide the BBVA League title yet again as Real Madrid travel to Barcelona one point behind the league leaders and Barca knowing a win would take them four points clear with 10 games left to play.

The only major fitness worry for the game is Barcelona midfielder, Sergio Busquets, so we are likely to see two of the most fearsome attacks in the world: Luis Suarez, Neymar and Leo Messi go head to head against Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale and Karim Benzema.

Half of the world will be watching for what promises to be a Classic in every sense of the word.

However, football fans who don't want to have to wait until Sunday night before watching their first game have plenty to entertain them beforehand.

The weekend kicks off on Friday night with an east coast derby as Elche look to climb away from the relegation zone at home to Valencia.

Last weekend's results saw Valencia move ahead of Atletico Madrid into third place in the league and another win would see them close to within just four points of Real Madrid, who of course play later on.

Saturday starts with Atletico at home to Getafe in a Madrid derby. Getafe lost at home to Real Sociedad and need points to avoid being sucked back into the relegation battle.

Atletico meanwhile will want to celebrate their epic qualification for the last 8 of the Champions League, although coach Diego Simeone, who is on the verge of signing a new contract, will also have to rotate his squad to deal with injuries and tired legs.

Rayo Vallecano are in a similar situation to Getafe and their game against Malaga kicks off as soon as the Atletico match finishes.

All eyes will be on Rayo striker, Alberto Bueno, who is currently the top scoring Spaniard in La Liga with 16 goals this season.

Levante will want all three points from their home game against Celta before Saturday ends with two late kick offs as Athletic Club Bilbao, who are without injured top scorer Aritz Aduriz, look for their fifth consecutive win as they entertain relegation threatened Almeria.

At the same time Granada and Eibar play another relegation clash as Eibar look to end a run of eight consecutive defeats.

Deportivo la Coruna are in action at midday on Sunday and will be confident of taking points from an Espanyol side which is floating comfortably in mid-table no-man's land and usually struggles away from home.

Five pm sees Villarreal and Sevilla play each other for the third time in 10 days as a result of their Europa League last 16 tie, while Real Sociedad look to increase the pain on Cordoba, who are rock bottom and sacked coached Miroslav Djukic on Monday after failing to take any points from their last eight matches.

With the preliminaries over, Spain will then sit down to watch the Clasico. Endi