football | Petak, Oktobar 14, 2022 11:14 AM (Revised at: Petak, Oktobar 14, 2022 2:36 PM)

Real Madrid vs Barcelona Bet Builder: 2.05 Builder for Sunday’s El Clasico

Jack Wright

Real Madrid vs Barcelona Bet Builder: Sunday, October, 16th

It’s a pleasure to dive deep into the stats and bring you my Real Madrid vs Barcelona bet builder tips. El Clásico is set for its 250th competitive renewal with Estadio Santiago Bernabéu playing host.

In this article:

Real Madrid vs Barcelona Preview
Real Madrid vs Barcelona Stats & Facts
Real Madrid vs Barcelona Bet Builder

Real Madrid vs Barcelona Preview

Sunday, October 16th, 15:15 (UK)

El Clásico is one of a handful of matches that grips not just a nation but a worldwide audience. Football fans across the globe will tune in for the action from the Spanish capital. Adding an extra topping of magic dust to this renewal is the fact it’s a top-of-the-table clash.

The La Liga title has gone to one of these two rivals in seven of the last eight seasons. It looks set to become eight in nine at the end of this campaign. Both sides are unbeaten in their opening eight fixtures with seven wins and one draw. These sides are already five points clear of the chasing pack.

Los Blancos and Blaugrana also head into this battle following very similar results in the past seven days. Last weekend, Eder Militao scored the only goal in a 1-0 win for the Spanish champions over Getafe. The following day, Barça returned to the summit. Pedri’s first half strike was enough for a win over Celta Vigo.

Midweek Champions League action saw Antonio Rüdiger head home a 95th-minute equaliser for Carlo Ancelotti’s rotated side in a 1-1 draw with Shakhtar Donetsk in Warsaw. Robert Lewandowski kept his side’s faint hopes of reaching the UCL knockout stages alive. Another dramatic injury time strike to earn a 3-3 draw with Inter Milan.

Xavi served notice on Real that he intended to bring back the glory days akin to those of his playing career for the Catalan club in this fixture last season. Dominating possession and creating several glorious chances. The home side were possibly fortunate to “only” be on the receiving end of a 4-0 thrashing.

Real Madrid vs Barcelona Stats & Facts

The last seven head-to-heads in Madrid have been won by the team scoring first
Marc-André ter Stegen, who hasn’t conceded for 624 minutes in LL and has saved 95% of shots he’s faced in the league this term.
Robert Lewandowski is La Liga’s top scorer with nine goals in 629 minutes – a goal every 70 minutes.
Karim Benzema has faced Barcelona 41 times during his career, more than any other opponent. Only scoring one La Liga goal against them since 2016.

Real Madrid vs Barcelona Bet Builder

Picking a winner here seems an unnecessarily tough assignment. Carlo Ancelotti admitted his side played really poorly although went on to praise their character. Although still mathematically possible to remain in European football’s showpiece tournament, Xavi went even harder in his assessment. “I’m very disappointed, sad, frustrated… I’m angry. I have to be self-critical, we don’t deserve to play in the Champions League” he fumed.

It is interesting to note that the home side has only emerged victorious in three of the last 14 La Liga El Clásico battles. So I am resisting unpacking my lucky pin and instead utilising a couple of the other markets open to us.

It seemed defensive issues finally caught up with Barcelona in midweek. Ronald Araujo, Hector Bellerin and Andreas Christensen are all out with Jules Kounde still a serious doubt. Marcos Alonso was called in as an emergency centre back for the defeat of Vigo last weekend. While it was the pairing of Gerard Pique and Eric Garcia for the midweek goal fest.

They have also been overly reliant on goalkeeper Marc-André ter Stegen in building the impressive statistic of just one goal league conceded. It is certainly not through the protection offered to the German international.

The 30-year-old has been saving shots at an unsustainably high rate. That 95% will certainly fall over the coming weeks somewhere in line with the 59% he has from four UCL outings this season. Part of the reason Xavi has seen his side ship seven goals in that tournament. At least one in each game including against group whipping boys Viktoria Plsen at the Nou Camp.

For this reason, I am not put off siding with goals. Especially given the hosts are also unlikely to have their first-choice defence on show. Toni Rudiger the latest doubt having needed 20 stitches in a head wound. A souvenir to remind him of his midweek match-saving header. Los Blancos have also conceded in nine of their 12 competitive fixtures this season. Failing to keep a clean sheet in any of their three home league games.

At the other end of the pitch, there are two of the best exponents of goalscoring in the business. Robert Lewandowski and Karim Benzema combining for a total of 89 goals in 93 club matches. The supporting cast isn’t bad either. The dynamic Vini Jr, Rodrygo and Valverde for the hosts with metronomic midfield maestros Modric and Kroos sitting deeper. With Ousmane Dembele, Raphinha, Ansu Fati, Ferran Torres, Gavi, Pedri for the visitors. The plethora of attackers available against the patchwork defence makes playing goals at both ends very appealing.

The route in to round up this 2.05 bet builder is on cards. What else in such an explosive contest? José María Sánchez Martínez is the man in the middle. One of the most lenient officials in Spain. Personally, I don’t think that is of concern here. The confident play is for Barcelona to pick up two or more cards. That is something they have managed in three of their four away league games this season, including each of the last three. Overall, it is six of the eight top-flight fixtures played so far and all of the last five.

It’s not a surprise to see an even more persuasive case when looking at the head-to-head data. The Catalans saw at least two cards in 19 of the last 20 El Clásico clashes and in every one of the last 10 when they were the away team.