Saturday afternoon sees the 246th El Clasico taking place, and the 91st league meeting at the Nou Camp. Barcelona were 5-1 winners over Hungarian side Ferencvaros midweek with Lionel Messi getting his first goal of the season, meanwhile Real Madrid were surprise 2-3 losers to Ukrainian champions Shakhtar Donetsk.
Real have only won in two of their last 10 league visits to Barcelona, but can the old enemy inflict more pain on Los Blancos here? We’ve had a look through all the markets to find a nicely-priced Same Game Multi.
Remember it’s an early one too, kick-off for this one is 3pm.
ALSO AT 3PM… Our top tips for Fulham v Crystal Palace
Both Teams to Score
Barcelona have won four of the previous 10 league meetings mentioned above, with the same amount ending all square – just one of which was a goalless draw. If we extend that to the last 20 matches between the pair at the Nou Camp in all competitions, 16 have seen Both Teams to Score landing, 14 have seen Over 2.5 Goals and nine have seen Over 3.5 Goals. With BTTS landing in 16 out of 20 matches – 80% – you’d expect odds of 1/4, we’re seeing a better price here so we’re already getting value.
Barcelona to Win
The Catalans haven’t had the best of starts to the league. Over their four league matches they’ve won two, drawn one and lost one, scoring eight and conceding two. Prior to Barca taking on Ferencvaros, manager Ronald Koeman had a little pop at Lionel Messi about not scoring. 27 minutes into the match up stepped the Barcelona captain to fire in a penalty and open his account for the season.
As mentioned above, this will be the 91st league meeting hosted by Barcelona and it must be said that they don’t lose many to Real on their own patch. Over the 90 matches played so far, they’ve won 50, drawn 20 and the visitors have won 20. Their home league record hasn’t been mighty of late though, winning two, drawing two and losing one of their last five.
However they have though only lost one of their last 33 home La Liga matches, winning 28 of them. Real are missing the likes of Eden Hazard, Dani Carvajal and possibly captain Sergio Ramos too, and have only scored six goals over their five La Liga matches. We have to go with the home side here, as with that record and the odds on offer there’s plenty of value there.
MORE TIPS: Our 20/1 five-fold acca from Saturday’s European footy
Lionel Messi to Score First
This will be Lionel Messi’s 44th match against Real in all competitions. He’s seen his side win 19 of those, drawing 11 and losing just 13. He’s scored 26 goals over those 43 previous matches, that’s more or less a goal every match and a half. Their last meeting was a 0-0, so he’s due one.
He opened his account for the club midweek in the Champions League and looked hungry for more. It’s unusual for a Barcelona manager to criticise Messi publicly but the mind games might just pay off for Koeman as Messi will want to have a successful season to repay the faithful fans for his Barcelona swansong. With him on penalties and free kicks and surely fired up for the match we’re backing him to open the scoring here.
Barcelona v Real Madrid tips
Both Teams to Score
Barcelona to Win
Lionel Messi to Score First
* All odds correct at time of first publishing but may change. Prices are bang up to date with our snazzy widget.
WHAT IS PADDY POWER’S SAME GAME MULTI?
A Same Game Multi with Paddy Power allows our punters to pick from multiple markets for a single event (across a wide range of sports) and combine two or more selections from the chosen event into one handy bet.
So, if you want an accumulator of beautiful bets from an individual match, you can now do just that! It’s just like building up a traditional accumulator really, and all that is left for you to do is sit back and enjoy the game.
Learn more about the Same Game Multi here.
- Paddy’s Acca Insurance is NOT available with the above El Classico selections. Acca insurance – where your stake is refunded (up to £/€10) as a free bet – is only applicable in Same Game Multis or accumulators with a minimum of FOUR legs.
More Tips for Saturday
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- We’re Enjoying Home Comforts In This Week’s 15/1 Efl 4-Fold Acca
- Phil Thompson: In-form Man Utd will leave Lampard feeling Blue
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