El Clásico Series Grand Preview

The War Between Barca and Real Madrid will begin this Saturday

So, it's officially on - The El Clasico Grand series. In a La Liga season, the two classic encounter between Real Madrid and Fc Barcelona is always the most anticipated and the most followed event. In most of the season, it also tends to be the most decisive considering the domination of the Spain's top two in top flight football. But in recent memory or the time since I have followed La Liga, I have never heard of five Clasico matches in a season - one has been done with and the rest four are just days away from us. In the start of any season every Barca or Real Madrid fans biggest dream is not only to win every silverware available but also to beat their greatest rival on the way to it. Usually such wishes remain simply dreams, but this season they have wings attached to it. It is difficult to predict who will emerge from this Grand series victorious and the extend of that victory. Already war calls are ringing from both band aided mercilessly by numerous accusations hurled at each other, through media channels loyal to each other. What I am attempting to do here is to break up each of these clashes and highlight the most important.

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Shaktar - 0, Barca - 1

Clinical Barca seal Semi-Final spot

FC Barcelona finished off the good work they did in the first leg with a 1-0 victory against Shaktar at the Donbass Arena. In an arena, where many of the Europe's finest struggled, Barca produced a very efficient display to book their place in yet another Champions League semi-final and an aggregate score of 6-1. Lionel Messi has started a new goal scoring streak scoing in the second consecutive match. Let's all hope he carries on with the streak for the next two to three weeks atleast. Guardiola was taking Shaktar very seriously and decided against resting any of his major stars. Victor Valdes was back in goal. Busquets and Pique formed the centre of defense with Alves and Adriano playing the full back role. I expected Milito to start as I very much expect him to start against Real Madrid. The midfield had Mascherano, Xavi and Keita. The front trio was made up of Villa, Messi and Afellay. Meanwhile Shaktar also didn't have their normal defensive line availabe - Chygrynskiy, Srna, Kucher and Razvan Rat all were our for this tie.

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Shaktar vs Barca preview - Finishing Off The Good Work

Carrying a 5-1 lead from the first leg, the biggest worry for Guardiola could be complecency creeping among his wards. He will be without the service of Iniesta, who is suspended for this leg but otherwise have taken almost all available players to Ukraine. Iniesta could definitely do well with some deserving rest and most probably we can expect Guardiola to rest more players. Shaktar Donetsk has one of the most amazing home record all over Europe. They haven't lost a home match in 58 consecutive matches and clubbed with the climate over there - our boys could be in for a tough night. The 5-1 scoreline is not going to bother Shaktar and they will be going to go out with their heads held high. That could be a big problem for Barca, a Shaktar which has nothing to lose could be really handful for us. Even in the first leg, Shaktar did trouble us at times especially with their pace. So what we need tomorrow night is an efficient performance, that could be consider as a trial run for the match at Bernebeu.

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