'Clasico' High Noon for Ronaldo and Messi

As well as a potential title decider, Saturday's 'Clasico' between bitter rivals Real Madrid and Barcelona serves up the latest installment in the goal-scoring drama featuring record-setting marksmen Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. 

Leaders Real have a four-point advantage over champions Barca with five games left ahead of the clash at the Nou Camp and Ronaldo and Messi have already netted a Spanish record 41 times each in La Liga this season. 

Portuguese Ronaldo, who set the previous best of 40 last term, has 53 goals in all competitions, while Argentine Messi, the man who replaced him as World Player of the Year and has won the award the past three years, has 63, including 14 in the Champions League. 

He is only four short of the all-time record of 67 set by former Bayern Munich striker Gerd Mueller in the 1972-73 season. 

The latest domestic showdown between the world's two richest clubs has an added significance in that Real and Barca could meet in next month's Champions League final as Real seek a 10th European crown and holders Barca chase a third triumph in four years and their fifth overall. 

Both sides trail after their semi-final first legs, Real losing 2-1 at Bayern Munich and Barca falling 1-0 to Chelsea in London. 

Spanish league champions the past three years, Barca have already beaten Real over two legs in both the Spanish Super Cup and the King's Cup this term and they came from a goal down to win 3-1 at the Bernabeu in La Liga in December. 

Should they finish level on points, the title will be decided by head-to-head record not goal difference. 

Their matches rarely pass without controversy, from accusations of refereeing bias to red cards to outright brawling. Jose Mourinho famously poked Barca assistant coach Tito Vilanova in the eye during a melee earlier this season. 

With the combative Portuguese at the helm, hopes were high in Madrid that Real would be able to end Barca's domination, although he has yet to find the magic touch that brought him so much success in Portugal, England and Italy. 

"It's going to be another enormously demanding game," Emilio Butragueno, a former Real and Spain striker now a club director, said after Tuesday's defeat at Bayern Munich. 

"The result could affect how the remaining four league games go," he added. 

"Barcelona will present the greatest possible challenge and I hope we can find inspiration." 
 
Ronaldo versus Messi is just one of a host of match-ups in an historic rivalry that is played out on many levels. 

Barca see themselves as the representatives of fiercely independent Catalonia, standing up to the hated central government of Madrid embodied in Real. 

Battle is also joined in the Spanish sports press, with Madrid-based Marca and As and Barcelona's Sport and El Mundo Deportivo constantly sniping and antagonising. 
In addition, the game pits Real coach Mourinho against the club where he was an assistant coach in the 1990s when current Barca boss Pep Guardiola was a player. 
Mourinho, who has repeatedly suggested that Barca are given favourable treatment by referees, has only managed to get the better of Guardiola once in 10 games since joining Real from Inter Milan in 2010, a dramatic 1-0 extra-time success in last year's King's Cup final. 

Barca knocked Real out of the Champions League in the semi-finals last season, when they also inflicted a 5-0 La Liga drubbing on Mourinho in his first trip to the Nou Camp as Real coach in November 2010. 

"He (Guardiola) is an intelligent lad and he knows exactly how he has managed to win so many games," Mourinho said pointedly at a news conference after the Bayern game. 

"He knows perfectly well how he has done it," added the Portuguese, who was fined by UEFA last season for accusing European soccer's governing body of helping Barca. 

If either side wins Saturday's 'Clasico' they will have 87 victories in 219 official meetings since they first locked horns in the Spanish Cup in May 1902, compared with 86 for their opponent. There have been 46 draws. 

Real are one goal away from breaking their own La Liga record for a season of 107 set under Welsh coach John Toshack and with Butragueno in the side in the 1989-90 season. 

Spain's top two have again set a blistering pace this season, which no other club has been able to match for long. 

Europa League semi-finalists Valencia are 29 points behind Barca in third ahead of their game at Real Betis on Sunday and Malaga, who play at Osasuna on Monday, are a point further back in fourth. 

FACTBOX

Key numbers around Spain's 'Clasico' between Real Madrid and Barcelona. The arch rivals meet at Barca's Nou Camp stadium in La Liga on Saturday in a match that could decide the destination of the title. Real have a four-point lead with five games left.  
 
9 - The number of victories for Barca coach Pep Guardiola in 14 'Clasicos' since he took over in 2008 (La Liga, King's Cup, Champions League and Spanish Super Cup). Real have won just one, a 1-0 extra-time success in the 2011 King's Cup final   

11 - The number of La Liga matches Barca have won in a row since losing 3-2 at Osasuna on Feb. 11. The streak has helped them trim six points from Real's lead as Jose Mourinho's side slipped to draws against Malaga, Villarreal and Valencia.  
 
13 - The number of goals scored by Lionel Messi in 18 'Clasicos'. The World Player of the Year is the highest scorer among current members of either squad and is joint-fifth on the all-time list with former Real winger Gento. He has not scored in his last three games against Real.  
 
18 - The number of goals former Real player Alfredo Di Stefano, now the club's honorary president, scored to top the all-time 'Clasico' scorers' list.  
 
18 - The number of cards the most booked player, former Real and Spain defender Fernando Hierro, collected in official 'Clasicos' (17 yellow and one red).  
 
63 - The number of goals Messi has scored in all competitions this season (including the Spanish and European Super Cups and the Club World Cup). He and his great rival Cristiano Ronaldo both have a record 41 in La Liga and Ronaldo has 53 in all competitions.  
 
86 - Barca and Real have both beaten each other 86 times in official matches, with 46 draws.  
 
218 - The number of official 'Clasicos' played since the pair's first encounter in the last four of the Spanish Cup on May 13, 1902, which Barca won 3-1.  
 
365 - The number of goals Real have scored in official 'Clasicos', 11 more than Barca.  
 

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