If there is a secret to stopping the world’s best player, the former Liverpool fullback is the most likely man to possess it. On his debut for Rafael Benitez’s side in 2007, Arbeloa, then a largely unheralded utility defender, snuffed out the Argentine with contemptuous ease as his team won at the Nou Camp, and Manuel Pellegrini will entrust him with a similar task at the Bernabeu. That said, Messi is a better player now than he was three years ago, as his performance against Arsenal proved. Arbeloa will have his work cut out.
Tactical battle
'El gran classico' is no occasion for tactical nuance, especially when featuring two sides used to simply steamrollering pliant opposition. Real will line up in their usual 4-2-3-1, Barcelona in their trademark 4-3-3, and both will simply go for the jugular. It is in the individual battles that the interest lies. Lassana Diarra will be tasked with shutting down Xavi, Daniel Alves will be asked to curb his attacking instincts to marshal Cristiano Ronaldo and Real, through Arbeloa, will seek to douse Messi’s fire.
Touchline duel
Manuel Pellegrini v Pep Guardiola
The Barcelona manager, suave and urbane, may be in only his second year as a manager, but the infinitely more experienced Chilean would do well to emulate his ruthless attitude to player power. Pellegrini, as should be expected for a man on the bench at the Bernabeu, has spent much of his first season in the Spanish capital trying to instil a collective ethos into individuals all too well aware of their own self-interest. Guardiola has no truck whatsoever with egotists, as his swift toppling of Ronaldinho and Samuel Eto’o proved.
Tactical battle
'El gran classico' is no occasion for tactical nuance, especially when featuring two sides used to simply steamrollering pliant opposition. Real will line up in their usual 4-2-3-1, Barcelona in their trademark 4-3-3, and both will simply go for the jugular. It is in the individual battles that the interest lies. Lassana Diarra will be tasked with shutting down Xavi, Daniel Alves will be asked to curb his attacking instincts to marshal Cristiano Ronaldo and Real, through Arbeloa, will seek to douse Messi’s fire.
Touchline duel
Manuel Pellegrini v Pep Guardiola
The Barcelona manager, suave and urbane, may be in only his second year as a manager, but the infinitely more experienced Chilean would do well to emulate his ruthless attitude to player power. Pellegrini, as should be expected for a man on the bench at the Bernabeu, has spent much of his first season in the Spanish capital trying to instil a collective ethos into individuals all too well aware of their own self-interest. Guardiola has no truck whatsoever with egotists, as his swift toppling of Ronaldinho and Samuel Eto’o proved.
