Zinedine Zidane’s Real Madrid currently find themselves top of LaLiga by three points, with his squad also holding a game in hand over second-placed Barcelona.
Win on Sunday evening and they could extend the gap to six points, with that game still in hand, so this edition of El Clasico could legitimately decide the title race as the season starts to wind down.
Both sides played midweek in the Champions League with contrasting fortunes, as Real Madrid progressed into the semi finals at the expense of Bayern Munich, while Barcelona were knocked out by Juventus.
Cristiano Ronaldo netted three times at Estadio Santiago Bernabeu, as Die Roten were sent on their way, meaning that Real Madrid still haven’t been beaten at home since a 2-1 cup defeat to Celta in January.
Neymar is suspended for the visitors, with Luis Enrique having a conundrum on his hands with regards to what he is going to do on the left-hand side of the attack.
Zidane knows that a point will be more than enough to help kill Barcelona’s belief that they can get back into the title race, and he might be happy to settle for just that.