Barcelona vows Madrid a "knockout". El Clásico date UAE time

Barcelona will have the chance to deal the final blow to rivals Real Madrid and go a long way towards clinching the Spanish league title, if they emerge victorious from the "Clasico" site that brings them together on Sunday (12:00 UAE time) at the "Spotify Camp Nou" in the 26th stage.
Barcelona have not won the league title since 2019 under Ernesto Valverde, and a win on Sunday will see Xavi Hernandez's men move 12 points clear of the club.
Winning the title will be a well-deserved reward for Xavi for the effort he has made to restore the team to its former position despite the severe financial crisis that prompted the club to abandon Argentine legend Lionel Messi in favor of Paris Saint-Germain.
Club president Joan Laporta knew how to deal with the difficult financial situation and made very influential signings by signing Poland's Robert Lewandowci, Frenchman Jules Conde and Brazilian Rafinha through future TV rights sales.
But the exit from the group stage of the Champions League and then from the play-offs qualified to the price of the final "Europa League" at the hands of Manchester United, showed that the path back between the greats of the continent is still long.
In the first meeting between the two sides this season, Real emerged victorious 3-1 in October, but Xavi's side have improved a lot since then and showed this development by beating the Royal Club by the same result in the Super Cup final in January, and then 1-0 away from home on the second of this month in the first leg of the semi-finals of the cup competition.
Unlike the Super Cup final, which was completely dominated by Barcelona, Real were the better side by a large margin in the first leg of the cup semi-finals, but a friendly fire goal by Brazilian defender Eder Militao dropped him in his stronghold and complicated matters for Italian coach Carlo Ancelotti's team, ecstatic from reaching the quarter-finals of the Champions League by renewing their victory over Liverpool 1-0 in Madrid after sweeping the first leg away from home 5-2.
Barcelona fans are waiting for Sunday's match to see how Xavi's approach will be, which demands that he perform much better than the cup match, but the problem for the Catalan club is that it needs the return of the "maestro" of the center Pedri.
Pedri has been the main influencer in Barcelona's attacking style this season, but with six games in all competitions sidelined with a groin injury with a possible return on Sunday, Xavi was forced to focus on defensive solidity to emerge victorious.
In the first leg of the cup semi-final, Real striker Karim Benzema and Brazilian Vinicius Jr. found it difficult to deal with the defence, especially the Seleção striker who collided with the feisty and toughness of Uruguayan Ronald Araujo.

"We must win"

Xavi tends to move the Uruguayan centre-back to right-back against Real in order to limit Vinicius' movements, which greatly affected the offensive output of Ancelotti's team in light of the Brazilian scaling and minimizing his impact.
After the win over Liverpool in midweek, Ancelotti spoke of Vinicius, saying: "For me he's the best in the world," but if the Brazilian suffers from defensive control on Sunday, the Italian coach will have to find other solutions.
Real proved on more than one occasion under the leadership of Ancelotti that he rises to the occasion and victory over the Catalan rivals in his stronghold is one of the fateful moments for this coach because he will return his team to the title struggle by reducing the difference to 6 points.
After renewing the win over Liverpool in midweek, Belgian goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois insisted: "Continue at this pace, play the same way we did today (Wednesday) and hopefully it will be the same in the +Clasico+. We have to win."
To beat the Catalan rivals, Real will have to do what only one team has achieved among visitors to Spotify Camp Nou in the league this season: scoring against the hosts.
Espanyol striker Joselo was the only player to score at the Catalan club's stadium in La Liga this season, in the neighbours' 1-1 draw in December, but his goal came from the penalty spot.
Away from the title struggle, Atletico Madrid will be looking to continue their impressive results since their last league loss to Barcelona 1-8 on January <>, by beating wounded Valencia on Saturday, which will keep them alone in third place.
The team of Argentine coach Diego Simeone is three points ahead of Real Sociedad IV, who meets Elche on Sunday with shaky morale after his exit from the price of the final "Europa League" at the hands of Roma, similar to his pursuer Real Betis fifth, who also bid farewell to the competition Thursday at the hands of Manchester United.
Sociedad are going through a difficult phase, having failed to win four consecutive stages, and have only won once in their last nine league games.