La Liga Odds: Shaky Barca Face Injured Real

Barcelona (-110) vs Real Madrid (+260), Draw (+300)

The fiercest rivalry in club football will take place this Saturday (December 3) when Real Madrid (10-3-0, 33 points) travel to Camp Nou to take on Barcelona (8-3-2, 27 points) for the first time this season.

Barcelona are coming off a shock 1-1 draw against Real Sociedad (7-2-4, 23 points), where they were lucky to come out with any points at all. An incorrect offside call denied Sociedad the winning goal, and a deflated Barca side held on to clinch a draw. Sociedad outshot Barcelona 17-10, including 6-2 on target. And they even outplayed them, possession-wise, holding the ball for over 50-percent of the game, a feat unheard of in the modern era of Barcelona.

Meanwhile, Real Madrid had a comfortable 2-1 win over Sporting (2-3-8, 9 points) and remain undefeated and on top of La Liga. They sit five points clear of second-place Barca, giving them a nice buffer coming into El Clasico. A win at Camp Nou will put them eight points up, which would be an almost insurmountable lead.

So you would expect Real Madrid to face Barcelona as the favorites, right? Well, not exactly. Barcelona, despite their poor showing in the last round, are expected to start their best team against Madrid. Their only concern is Andres Iniesta, who is recovering from knee ligament damage. But he has resumed training and is expected to be match-ready by Saturday.

Real Madrid have a longer list of injuries. Gareth Bale and Alvaro Morata have both been ruled out of El Clasico, leaving only Cristiano Ronaldo and an ailing Karim Benzema as their goal-scoring options. Playmaker Toni Kroos has also been ruled out with a foot injury. With six assists this season, the German midfielder is the linchpin of the Madrid attack.

Ddespite the injuries, Madrid remain a team to be reckoned with and I believe the bookmakers are underestimating their chances at Camp Nou. Barcelona, with home advantage and a healthy squad, are rightly the favorites. But at +260, it’s hard to pass up on Real Madrid.

Pick: Real Madrid (+260)

Photo credit: “Cristiano Ronaldo free Kick” by Jan Solo, CC BY-SA 2.0 [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0], via Flickr.