Barcelona vs. Real Madrid Clasico Preview - Messi vs. Ronaldo, MSN vs. BBC - Which Side Has Better Forwards?
We talked goalies. We talked defense. We talked midfield. But in all honesty, when it comes to the Clasico, people only really care about two names -- Messi and Ronaldo.
Fortunately for the world of soccer, these superstars have their own sidekicks up top which adds to the drama and enthusiasm of this fateful match on Sunday. But which side has the better forward trio? MSN or BBC?
Barcelona - The MSN
Messi is the main man, and as is testament to his superiority in the world right now, he has scored a whopping 20 goals and 12 assists in 2015; between August and December, the superstar had racked up "just" 23 goals and nine assists.
Messi currently leads the scoring race in Spain with a tremendous 32 goals, but he is followed by Neymar who has 17 for Barcelona in the Spanish League with four assists. Suarez meanwhile has seven goals in 18 appearances for Barcelona but has a tremendous nine assists in that same span.
The trio has contributed 56 goals and assists this year, while Barcelona as a team has put up 78 goals and 53 assists; in essence the MSN has contributed 72 percent of Barcelona's goals and 51 percent of its assists.
Real Madrid - The BBC
Ronaldo got off to a tremendous start to the season and scored a whopping 32 goals between August and December. However after winning his second consecutive Ballon d'Or the superstar fell off the radar for a while and has, to this point in 2015, scored a total of nine goals on the year. He is coming off two of his finest performances, including two goals against Schalke in the Champions League, but he needs to continue that top play to give his team any hopes of winning this offensive battle.
Of course he could use some help from his partners Karim Benzema and Gareth Bale as both players have also gone cold in 2015. Bale scored twice against Levante last weekend to break a nine-game goalless drought that went as far back as Jan. 31. He has 12 goals on the year but is far off the pace he put up a year ago when he scored 15 goals in Spain while supplying 12 assists; he has just five assists in 2014-15.
Meanwhile Karim Benzema has 13 goals on the year and a grand total of six in 2015. He has not been as inconsistent as Bale, but he has struggled to create as consistently as he had earlier in the year.
As a group, the BBC has contributed 55 of Madrid's 77 goals (71 percent), but only 24 of the team's 62 assists (39 percent).
Edge: On current form you would have to go with the MSN. Messi has scored the same number of goals as Ronaldo, Benzema and Bale combined in 2015 (20 for Messi and 20 for the BBC), which tells you everything you need to know about his form.
And he does not even need to score at will to have an impact on the game -- just watch the Manchester City game on Wednesday to see how Messi can obliterate a defense with his dribbling and passing. The same unfortunately cannot be said for Ronaldo or his partners. No goals for Ronaldo is usually not a great day. The only thing that he is doing better than Messi these days is generating shots, but that margin is not all that large and ultimately ineffectual when Messi is scoring with whatever few chances he gets.
Suarez and Neymar are reaping the benefits of this play and should provide Madrid's defense with a more formidable task on Sunday.
That said, we are talking about two groups of superstars, and those types of players tend to shine brightest on the biggest stage. This does not get better than that.
For now the edge goes to Barcelona, but remember that anything can change in a hurry if the BBC gets hot.