Finally, the big one. First versus second, champions versus former champions. Quite simply, the biggest match of the season in Spain.
Real Madrid, leaders and defending champions host Valencia, just two points adrift in second and seeking to reclaim top spot and subsequently their championship.
Sunday night sees the most important twist of this championship race play itself out at the Bernabeu, with many observers feeling that Real Madrid must seize the initiative given to them by dint of home advantage and put some clear space between themselves and their main challenger. The reality, however, is that the outcome on Sunday night will not decide the championship. The real advantage to be gained comes in terms of a cushion prior to recommencement of the Champions League, and the ever important boost to morale that victory over the enemy would bring.
Real Madrid have one eye on the dark and dangerous Bayern Munich lurking in the Champions League shadows, while Valencia have no such distraction and probably come into the game feeling a draw would give them the impetus to overtake the champions once Real's season becomes jammed with fixture commitments.
The recent cup games at the Mestalla and Bernabeu produced an aggregate victory for Real Madrid, but they are likely to have very little bearing on the league clash. The last significant meeting of the sides came in the reverse league fixture at the Mestalla in the Autumn which Valencia won 2-0 at a canter.
There will be no resting of players now as there was for the cup ties. This is the real deal, no pun intended.
The last five league games between the sides have produced three wins for Madrid and two for Valencia, and there has never really been much between the sides in those encounters. The best attack in Spain meets the best defence, with Madrid praying the
"Galacticos" can lift them in this one after some average recent displays.
Valencia's superior overall balance means they are always likely to score while having a particularly miserly defence. Madrid, in comparison, are always likely to concede while in the process of crafting numerous goal chances. Those chances will be fewer against Valencia, so they need to be converted if their famously non-existent defence isn't to be breached by the probing of little Aimar.
Indeed, Valencia are the classic score-from-all- positions side. In Baraja and Albelda they have the most combative and driven midfield in Spain. Needless to say, their defence marshalled by Ayala and Carboni is a study in destruction and discipline, overseen by the feline Canizares, prowling on the goal line.
Iker Casillas is the up-and-coming star of Spanish goalkeeping, and the worthy future successor in the great line of Iribar, Zamora, Arconada, and Zubizaretta. However, the man he faces on Saturday night is quite probably the only goalkeeper in Spain who can claim to be his superior. If it wasn't for the calamitous injury caused by dropping a bottle of aftershave on his naked instep, Canizares would have played for Spain at the World Cup.
Casillas was drafted in and hasn't looked back. Canizares knows he must depose the young pretender once and for all this season if he is to get a last hurrah with Spain at Euro 2004. The only way to do that is to win the championship. Sunday night is an opportunity that must not be discarded.
Luis Figo is rumoured to be leaving the Bernabeu in June with Juventus the mooted destination. If true, Valencia's defence will give the most fouled man in European football a taste of what Serie A will be like. Nobody has been chopped down more in the Champions League than the great Portuguese winger who has been awarded 31 free kicks in six games. This has been his lot in domestic football too for the last seven seasons. Expect to see him hit the deck on Sunday night when faced with the redoubtable, hostile Valencia rearguard. Expect them to be tormented too, however, for this is a fixture of true confrontation.
LATEST FORM
Both sides go into the game with six wins and one draw in the last seven. Valencia have scored nine in the last two games and are right back in championship form, having scored 16 goals to Madrid's 14 in that series of games. Indeed, the visitors have only conceded four times, while the champions' defence has been breached twice as many times. It is this type of balance which makes me believe the title will eventually be wrested away from the capital.
One positive omen for the champions, however, is the form of Raul. Quite frankly, it can't get any worse. The Spanish captain has now gone five games without a goal. The last time he did that, he broke the sequence in the sixth game. With seven goals to his name in recent seasons against Valencia, the time is ripe for Raul to pounce.
With a magnificent home record of ten wins in ten matches, Real Madrid are an awesome propostion on their home patch. The half time score could go some way to deciding this match as Real have won 10 times out of 10 when leading at half time. Should Valencia take and interval advantage, their record reads 11 wins out of 12 half time leads.
Clearly, these teams rarely give the initiative away. Moreover, with only one defeat on the road in 11 away games this season, Valencia posses the best visiting record of any team in Spain, with seven victories in those games. All in all, the statistics just show how formidable these two sides are and how much of a collission course they are now on.
TEAM NEWS
The most significant news of the week in Spain is the one match ban for Zinedine
Zidane which means he misses the Valencia clash. The Frenchman picked the ban up in the cup semi final victory over Sevilla for an alleged elbowing incident. This is hugely significant, for Madrid's defeats this season have come only when one of the seven
"Galacticos" has been missing.
Zidane had earlier commented that a victory over Valencia would mean
"half the title is in the bag." Without him, Madrid will be searching for inspiration elsewhere as well as for that proportion of the title.
PLAYER TO WATCH
Well, it would be churlish to select one player to keep an eye on in this game of stars. For once, it may well be a case of just watching the whole game rather than any individuals. The best two teams in Spain go head to head. Expect fireworks but an inconclusive outcome to the main battleground, the race for the title. As Canizares said this week:
"the two teams that are highest up the league table are playing against each other and together with Deportivo we are the three teams that are in the running for the league title; but plain mathematics and the three point league system year after year has proved that individual matches are not decisive when there are 14 or 15 left to play".
The fact the game arrives at a comparatively early stage of the season suggests the players will be free enough to entertain without the shackles of fear. Just watch them all!
PROBABLE LINE-UPS
Real Madrid:
Casillas,
Michel Salgado,
Roberto Carlos,
Helguera,
Raúl Bravo,
Guti,
Beckham,
Figo,
Solari,
Raúl,
Ronaldo.
Valencia: Cañizares,
Garrido, Ayala, Marchena, Carboni, Rufete, Albelda, Baraja, Vicente, Aimar, Mista.