Forget the Mersyside derby or the Manchester Derby this weekend, the City of Madrid steals the limelight as the showpiece match of Europe as Atletico Madrid make the short trip across Spain’s capital to the Santiago Bernabéu to face the old enemy Real Madrid.
Across all competitions, the pair have met a whopping 218 times and unsurprisingly, it is Los Blancos who hold a significant statistical edge over their neighbours.
Real have won exactly half of all the encounters with 109 victories between the two whilst Atletico have claimed a poultry 55 by comparison and a total of 54 draws.
However, the past means little right now as it is Los Rojiblanco who hold a four-point lead over their esteemed rivals in a season that has seen Real head coach Zinedine Zidane come under severe pressure.
Despite this, the home side are still deemed the match favourite with 888sport and that could be a sensible option largely thanks to the form of one man.
It is not the first time we have lauded Cristiano Ronaldo as the saviour of Real Madrid but after receiving criticism early in the season for appearing to go off the boil somewhat, Ronaldo has again proven all doubters wrong and taken his game to another level when it looked like at 33-years-old, his best years were behind him.
Against Juventus in the Champions League, he scored arguably one of the greatest Champions League goals of all time with an almighty overhead kick which has seen the Portuguese superstar gain even more accolades.
There is no doubt that Ronaldo will play a vital role on Sunday night but there is still some hope for Atleti.
Diego Simeone’s side have been impressive on the road this season with nine wins from their fifteen encounters away from the Wanda Metropolitano whilst only conceding 10 times on the road.
That is six less than Real Madrid have managed on the road but remarkably seven less than Los Blancos have managed at the Bernabeu.
The fact that Simeone’s Atletico Madrid have conceded the least amount of goals in La Liga this season is the main reason why the side sit second in the table and are still not quite out of the title race sitting just nine points behind Barcelona.
A strong recent record also boosts Atletico’s chances having drawn two and winning one of their last three league trips across the city.
However, Real, have the bit between their teeth right now and look a side in regeneration mode after a mid-season collapse.
That result against Juventus in the Champions League will have gone a long way to allowing Zidane to play a full-strength side on Sunday with passage to the semi-final’s all but assured.
With just eight games to go this season, this Madrid derby will go a long way to telling us just how serious both sides are taking the latter stages of their league campaigns with European commitments in hand, but pride weighs heavy for both and the thought of losing is simply not acceptable.
