Two matches can transform Real’s season

– Real Madrid can transform their own season by beating Liverpool in this month’s Champions League final, and tomorrow they can dent Barcelona’s by becoming the first team to defeat the Catalans in La Liga.

This Clasico at Camp Nou will have minimal impact on the league, with Barca already crowned champions and Real’s passing interest in pipping Atletico to second place diminished by their ambitions in Europe.

But there is still much at stake in what Madrid’s daily newspaper Marca has billed “the Clasico of honour”. It could even be argued

Madrid

this match will go some way to defining the seasons of these two teams.

Barca, in particular, have been careful in celebrating their domestic double, their players aware of the disappointment that lingers from their Champions League elimination in the quarterfinals.

Even as they ordered pizza and slurped beer from the top of their open-top bus down Las Ramblas this week, it was noticeable how many interviews still referenced the bitter disappointment in Rome.

“The elimination in the Champions League, it hurt us because it was unexpected,” said Barca coach Ernesto Valverde (right). “But it is very difficult to do what we have done and now what are we going to do? We keep trying.”

To soften the blow, Barca’s best response was to win the Copa del Rey and La Liga and try to finish unbeaten in the league for the first time, while hoping Real do not go all the way in the Champions League.

Real’s march towards a 13th European triumph has certainly weighed heavily on Barcelona, whose sense of absence has been heightened by the progress of their rivals.

Barca are looking to avoid defeat this weekend, and in their last three league games against Villarreal, Levante and Real Sociedad to seal an historic season.

But if Real snatch a victory at the Camp Nou and also see off Liverpool, perhaps the balance is tipped in their favour.

It will certainly be the last ‘clasico’ for Andres Iniesta as a player while Gareth Bale may also wave goodbye to this fixture, with the Welshman expected to consider his future at Real in the summer.

Atletico Madrid, who are five points ahead of Real, host struggling Espanyol tomorrow. –