Analysis: Real Madrid - Barcelona

We are in for a basketball derby of Spain on Wednesday night. For the first time since long time ago the Real – Barcelona match’s favorite is “The Royal” club.

Classifications and team condition:
Real and Barcelona dominate not only in the world of football on the Iberian Peninsula. A similar situation can be seen in the Spanish ACB where both clubs hold the first two places. Barcelona (11-2) with 24 points has only 1 breakaway point over the Royals (10-3).

Potential and team condition:
We will concentrate on the both teams before the prestigious match in our sports analytics. Both teams have great losses. The hosts will play without Rudy Fernandez who has returned to Denver Nuggets after finishing of lockout. We won’t see Serge Ibaki among the T-shirts of “The Royals”. A power forward from the Spanish national team has got into Oklahoma Thunder. Absence of the first player around whom Pablo Laso has been creating tactics for certain matches will be more tangible. Absence of Ibaki in its turn will weaken the game in the penalty area, but there still are many possibilities for maneuvers here. We mean Ante Tomic, Felipe Reyes of the new player Kyle Singler. Novica Velickovic returns to the game after a back injury. Barcelona’s defenders have to pay special attention to Jaycee Carrol and Nikola Mirotic. Condition of the Macedonian player (although the best goal-scorer is the American) who has been setting new records in the last matches can inspire respect of the opponents from Catalonia.

Barcelona can’t win the match only with attacks or only with defense. The current champion loses in average only 65 points in ACB this season. Only Xacobeo Compostela and Cajasoul Sevilla managed to score more than 80 points against Havier Pascual’s team. The holiday period is a sensible slump of the condition of the Catalans. Barcelona lost in two prestigious matches with a weakened team Montepaski (Champion of Italy) in the Euroleague and a more important one in Vitoria with Caja Laboral. A weaker condition of the team is to a great extent connected with the health of its leader Juan Carlos Navarro. The most effective basketball player in the history of Euroleague, with a left foot injury won’t be able to play for a whole month and his appearance  in “El Classico” is excluded.

History of meetings:
From an objective point of view of the statisticians the guests’ team is the favorite. Real Madrid could overcome Barcelona’s complex only in the past season, winning at home with the score 77:72, with which it broke the series of 5 defeats from “Blaugran”. The Catalans won 8 out of 10 last matches played between these teams.

Tips and grounds:
Taking into consideration such serious losses of both teams it is hard to foretell the winner of this match. Since both clubs will play without their main forwards: Fernandez and Navaro, the bet of under 146.5 will be more practical. Barcelona is the best defense of the whole ACB and in last matches it has been having problems in the attack. The history of meetings asserts that the match outcome will depend on the defense since 6 out of 10 matches between these teams had a defensive character.

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