Messi’s goal drought and Ronaldo’s woeful assist record – The best Clasico stats

Ahead of a crucial meeting between Barcelona and Real Madrid at Camp Nou, we look at the most interesting Opta facts and figures…

Barcelona meet Real Madrid in La Liga on Saturday for what looks set to be another mouth-watering edition of El Clasico.

It is Zinedine Zidane’s men who go into the match with the advantage – they are six points clear at the top of the table – although Gareth Bale is out injured.

Barca will be hoping to take advantage of the Wales international’s absence and arrest a run of form that has seen them draw their last two league encounters. Ahead of the big game, we look at the best Opta statistics.

– Lionel Messi is the top goalscorer in El Clasico history, with 21 to his name.

– However, Messi has gone five matches without a goal against Madrid in all competitions – his worst run against Los Blancos.

– Of his 21 goals, Messi has scored 12 of them (57%) at the Bernabeu – a record he will look to improve at Camp Nou.

– Messi has 13 assists from his 32 appearances in El Clasico.

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– Cristiano Ronaldo, meanwhile, has only won in seven of his 25 Clasico appearances.

– But he has scored 16 times in those games, giving him an almost identical goals-per-game ratio (0.64%) to Messi (0.65%).

– Like Messi, he is more successful away from home – 10 out of his 16 Clasico goals were scored at Camp Nou.

– Only Alfredo Di Stefano (18) has scored more goals against Barcelona for Real Madrid than Ronaldo.

– Ronaldo, though, has only produced one assist in his 25 Clasico games.

– Luis Enrique will face Real Madrid for the seventh time as a La Liga boss – he has won three and lost three of his previous games (W2 L2 with Barca, W1 L1 with Celta Vigo).

– Since Luis Enrique’s first La Liga match as a head coach, only Diego Simeone (4) has beaten Real Madrid more times.

– Messi has not scored in a Clasico match where he has been playing at the same time as both Luis Suarez and Neymar.

– Suarez is the only player to have scored twice in a Clasico where either ‘MSN’ or Real Madrid’s ‘BBC’ frontline have played together.

– Neymar is the only player of both attacking trios to have scored and assisted a goal in the same Clasico.

– Barcelona’s three defeats to Madrid is their worst record against any team under Luis Enrique (level with Celta and Real Sociedad).

– Luis Enrique won 4-0 on his last visit to the Bernabeu. Only one Barcelona manager has recorded a bigger winning margin in an away victory against Real Madrid in La Liga.

– The Clasico has not produced a 0-0 draw since November 2002.

– The most common Clasico result is 2-1 – it has occurred 43 times (23 of those in Madrid’s favour) in 232 games.

– The two teams have only met once before in matchday 14 of La Liga and that game ended in a 5-5 draw back in 1943.

– Victory would give Barcelona their 50th home win over their rivals in La Liga.

– In 86 meetings, Madrid have won on just 20 occasions in the league at Camp Nou.

– Barcelona have scored in each of their last 21 games against Real Madrid, the longest scoring run of any team in El Clasico history.

– Zidane could become the first Real Madrid manager to win consecutive away games against Barcelona since Miguel Munoz in 1965.

– Real Madrid have received 11 red cards in their last 26 games against Barcelona, four of them to Sergio Ramos.