Without rest after a happy Euroleague day for Madrid and an unhappy one for Barcelona, the two teams face each other in the last classic of 2024 (8:30 p.m., Movistar Deportes), the eighth of the year, five in the ACB, two in the Euroleague and one in Cup; number 223 in the domestic championship, in which, historically, the Madrid team dominates by a narrow margin (116 wins to 106).
Even more so in an irregular season for the two teams, which have not quite found their definitive direction either in the ACB League or in the Euroleague in which both have won the same games they have lost (nine), and are bordering the limit of the classification for the play in; the Madridistas above (tenth), the Barcelona fans just below (eleventh).
In the Spanish tournament, Real Madrid is fourth and Barcelona seventh after 12 games, an unusual situation for both, although Real, who lost the opportunity to become the leader in the previous matchday at La Fonteta, can give a boost to get closer to Valencia, Unicaja and Gran Canaria in case of winning. Meanwhile, if Barça wins in the WiZink, they would equal with the whites, but in case of defeat, they could leave the positions that give access to the Copa del Rey.
In the whirlwind of matches in the two competitions, Barcelona arrives with one less day of rest, but with the recovery of Chimezie Metu, the most outstanding of his team this Friday in the defeat against Red Star. Joan Peñarroya predicted that his return, after a month and a half of injury, would bring freshness, and he did, although it was not enough. The coach, in any case, wanted to turn the page quickly. “We must persist with the things that we must improve, we must persist and persist, even if they are not achieving continuity,” he pointed out after the last game against Red Star. “There is no choice but to detect them and continue working. A Madrid-Barça is always special. We need the majority of players to be involved, waiting for their moment,” claimed Joan Peñarroya, who has not finished gaining winning momentum at the Palau.
From the other trench, it seems to Chus Mateo that the clash with the Barça team is not just any match. “It is a classic where there are no favorites. It is not just another game for anyone. The two previous matches are worth it and you get a lot of things out of it, but they are different matches and they are not going to be similar. You try to take advantage of certain dynamics, but you also have to understand and make the players see that a classic is totally different. “Every game is a story,” he explained. In the last confrontation, a month ago, the whites won away in the Euroleague (90-97). And in the ten previous duels in the domestic competition, Madrid has won four and Barcelona, six.
The previous season, Barça won its last duel against Madrid in the regular League (85-79) at the Palau on April 7, but lost in the next three games, already in the playoffsalthough these data are barely relevant, as Chus Mateo warned in the previous hours. “I don’t think about it much and I wouldn’t give importance now to how each team arrives. It is important to take advantage of the dynamics, but you also find them in a good game or two in a row. We have to be prepared and the only thing we ask of the team is that we are working and ready to catch the wave and take advantage of the momentum when the important moment arrives,” concluded the Real Madrid coach before the usual Christmas classic in the ACB.
