La Liga: Four players have point to prove in El Classico

With the La Liga title race heating up and just one point separating the top two, the El Clasico comes in at a time where slip-ups from the top three cannot be afforded. Atletico Madrid is on top of La Liga with 66 points FC Barcelona is in second with 65 points and Real Madrid is in third with 63 points. 

A victory for Barcelona will make it difficult for Real Madrid to retain the La Liga title, while defeat for Barcelona will spice up the title race. We are going to take a look at those players coming into the game who need to prove themselves on the big stage and what better way to do this with the La Liga title at stake.

Ousmane Dembele,Winger

Age: 23

Transfer fees: €105 million

Season so far:

Appearances: 36, Goals-10, Assists- 4

Dembele has been an injury-prone player since arriving in Barcelona three years ago. These injuries have hindered his growth and stopped him from becoming an exceptional player. However, this season he has been playing regularly and delivering good performances. In the Champions League game against PSG, he missed several chances and received a lot of criticism from the Barcelona faithful. 

Since the game against PSG, he has bounced back with good performances. He scored a great goal against Barcelona’s amazing performance against Real Sociedad. Dembele played for the French national team after a long time and scored for them. He also scored the winning goal against Valladolid, which kept Barca’s title hopes alive but can he perform in the biggest fixture is yet to be seen.

Marco Asensio, Winger

Age-25

Transfer fees- €5 miilion

Season so far:

Appearances: 36, Goals-6, Assists- 2

A player that needs to prove himself in the colours of Real Madrid is Marco Asensio. He has been around for quite some time now at Madrid. Barca did have the opportunity to sign him back in 2014 coming in from Mallorca but instead, Barca decided to sign Douglas. He exploded onto the scene but over the past couple of seasons, his development has stagnated.

Recently he has shown signs of improvement he has scored in all three of his previous league matches and also scored against Liverpool in mid-week.

Antoine Griezmann, Forward

Age-30

Transfer fees- €120 miilion

Season so far:

Appearances: 41, Goals-14, Assists- 11

Griezmann signed for Barcelona in the summer of 2019 after they failed to sign him in 2018. He failed to hit the ground running as it was difficult for him to adapt to Barca’s style of play. After Koeman started playing 3-4-3 Barca has seen a significant improvement in the performance. This system helps all the front three to play freely and score a number of goals.

Since the start of 2021, Griezmann has improved a lot as he scored two goals in Barcelona’s last-minute comeback against Granada in the Copa Del Rey. He scored in both the games of France’s World Cup Qualifiers. He is in a good run of form and Koeman would be counting on him to deliver against Madrid.

Eder Militao, Centre-back

Age-23

Transfer fees- €50 miilion

Season so far:

Appearances: 9, Clean sheets- 2

Militao is going to be at the center of Real Madrid’s defense due to injuries and illness to Sergio Ramos and Raphael Varane. It is going to be a big night for Eder Militao. The player was brought from Porto in 2019 for €50 million to secure his signature but so far in his Real Madrid career, he hasn’t managed to get a good run in the first team.

He has only been selected only when Real have had huge injury problems as a result he has appeared on only nine occasions in all competitions this season. However, coming into Clasico, Militao comes off the back of arguably his best performance in a Real Madrid shirt against Liverpool, which would give him confidence before the game.