Real Madrid And Ronaldo Face Barcelona and Messi In El Clasico

El Clasico. The biggest match of the La Liga season as the two best sides in Spain, Real Madrid and FC Barcelona, will face each other now on April 10th at the match that will ultimately decide who wins La Liga.

In the 2008-2009 season, Real Madrid had two matches that they wished never happened, as Barcelona won 2-0 at the Camp Nou, and won a 6-2 blowout at the Bernabeu, a match that truly showed how powerful Barcelona were last season.

But in the only matchup of El Clasico this season on November 29 at the Camp Nou in Barcelona, Barcelona were able to win a thriller by a 1-0 score to take over first place in La Liga.

In that first match, we also saw a red card for both Sergi Busquets and Lassana Diarra as substitute Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored the match winner in the 58th minute.

But since then, Real Madrid have really impressed as they are now in first place in La Liga (even though they are tied with Barcelona on points, and have been for the last five weeks).

With all of Spain watching this match along with millions of fans around the globe, here is my official preview of the match.

Real Madrid

Team News: For Real Madrid, they have had a major setback as Kaka will still not be available for the match due to the thigh injury he received last month.

But still, Xabi Alonso will be available despite having problems with his ankle and Karim Benzema is still not 100 percent on his ankle.

Player to watch: Last summer, Florentino Perez bought a certain player named Cristiano Ronaldo to become the player that would help lead Real Madrid back to the promised land.

And this match is truly his biggest match to date as a member of los Merengues as this is Ronaldo's chance to outshine Lionel Messi and help lead Real Madrid to the La Liga title.

Biggest Potential weakness: The biggest potential weakness to Real Madrid comes in a five foot seven inch package from Rosario, Argentina.

He has been hailed by many as the best player in the world and just had a memorable four goal match in the second leg of the Champions League quarterfinal against Arsenal.

That player is reigning FIFA World Footballer of the Year and the winner of the Ballon d'Or winner Lionel Messi, who is not only the hottest player on the planet, but also is the person that could be the spark plug that will lead Barcelona to victory.

X-Factor: To me, it all comes down to the match being in the Bernabeu, as the home crowd could truly be the deciding factor in Real Madrid winning.

What Real must do to win: In order to win this match, they will need to shut down Lionel Messi to the best of their abilities.

That means having someone covering the Argentine at all times, and also to get a second player on him when he has possession of the football.

But regardless of this, it will take a gargantuan effort to stop Messi in this match.

And Real will also need to continue their great attack whenever they get possession of the football against a Barcelona side that normally holds onto the ball for over 60 percent of the match.

Since their loss to Athletic Bilbao in mid-January, Real have scored an incredible 39 goals in just 12 matches, and Real will need to get goals against a Barcelona squad that scores goals in bushels.

FC Barcelona

Team News: Meanwhile for Barcelona, they have been able to also cope with several injuries, as Swedish star Zlatan Ibrahimovic will be out again with the calf injury he suffered in training before Barcelona's match against Athletic Bilbao.

Also, Barcelona will be without Gerard Pique and Eric Abidal for the match, but both Yaya Toure and Andres Iniesta will be available for the match, but they will be relegated to the bench due to the fact that they are not at 100 percent.

Player to watch: Throughout the history of FC Barcelona, there have been many great players, but today there is a player that is good enough to be "playing a kick-about with Jesus" according to former Barcelona star and current Argentina manager Diego Maradona.

That player is Lionel Messi, as the Argentine Ace will surely want to leave his mark once again in a major matchup as La Liga will hang in the balance.

Biggest Potential weakness: The biggest weakness that Barcelona face in this matchup will be Real Madrid shutting down Xavi and/or Messi.

But even if that did happen, it will still be hard to stop Barcelona due to the way how they will maneuver around this potential problem.

X-Factor: The Barcelona back line. Throughout last year, that back line was the key to why Barcelona had one of the greatest seasons of all time, and they once again have paid dividends this year.

If the Barcelona back line have even a solid match, then they will most likely win this match.

What Barcelona must do to win: For starters, Barcelona do already know this, but they cannot completely rely on Lionel Messi to lead them to victory in this matchup.

But besides that, the backline will need to have a solid match overall and it will be up to Barcelona's midfielders to shut down Cristiano Ronaldo, as he will want to make this his match to win to further prove his worth for Real Madrid.

And finally, Barcelona will need to come out fighting against a very strong Real Madrid squad in what will be the matchup of the year in Spanish football.

Finally in a matchup such as this one, one must wonder who will prevail in this matchup of two explosive sides.

Will it be the Galácticos of Real Madrid or will it be a Barcelona squad that were described by Xabi Alonso as "the best team of the last 20 years, both in terms of performance and in terms of style of play"?

But one thing I am certain about is this: this El Clasico will truly be a matchup that will be remembered as one of the greatest ever matchups between these two sides.