The Euro Preview: Real Madrid and Juventus are the two best clubs in the world

Real Madrid to host Barcelona in latest El Clasico, Juventus are unstoppable and Marcelo is the best left-back on Earth.

La Liga

It’s El Clasico week, folks. Act accordingly.

To say Real Madrid and Barcelona are coming into the match on Sunday with opposite emotions would be putting it mildly. Real beat Bayern Munich 6-3 on aggregate in their Champions League quarterfinal tie thanks, in part, to a Cristiano Ronaldo hat-trick in the second leg on Tuesday. And, yes, one of his goals was definitely offside, and probably a hand ball, but Madrid were clearly the better side over the two matches. Also, Marcelo is really good at soccer.

Barcelona, in contrast, capitulated to Juventus in their quarterfinal without so much as a whimper, settling for a 0-0 draw in the second leg at Camp Nou and losing 3-0 on aggregate. Barca got off 12 shots on Wednesday, but only one was on target. Yuck.

Both clubs won their La Liga matches last weekend, leaving Barcelona still three points shy of Real Madrid, who still possess a game in hand (are they ever going to play that dang game?). The stakes of their match in Madrid on Sunday are clear: if Barca win or draw they still have life while a Real win puts them firmly in the driver’s seat as the league season enters its home stretch.

The other Madrid club, Atletico, are also through to the Champions League semifinals after ending Leicester’s unlikely run by an aggregate score of 2-1. Atleti will look to gain ground on Barca, who they trail by seven points, as they travel to ninth-place Espanyol on Saturday.

Bundesliga

Both remaining German clubs were bounced from the Champions League this week as Bayern Munich fell to Madrid and Borussia Dortmund were defeated by Monaco. BVB’s poor showing wasn’t surprising considering their damn bus was bombed before the first leg last week.

Domestically, Bayern have come back down to Earth a bit after winning only once in their last three Bundesliga matches. They still remain in firm control with an eight-point lead atop the table. The leaders will expect to collect three more points on Saturday as they host 15th-place Mainz.

Dortmund, currently sitting in fourth place, will focus on securing a Champions League spot as their main goal for the remainder of the Bundesliga season. Christian Pulisic was surely disappointed to come off the bench in BVB’s two Champions League quarterfinal matches — they certainly could have used his chance-creation ability against Monaco — but he should continue to see a lot of playing time in league play. Dortmund will travel to Monchengladbach, who are still without USMNT regular Fabian Johnson due to a nagging hamstring injury, on Saturday.

Second-place RB Leipzig will look to make it four league wins in a row on Sunday as they visit 11th-place Schalke. Third-place Hoffenheim, who poured in five goals against Gladbach last week, have won four of their last five league matches. They are on the road against seventh-place Cologne on Friday.

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Serie A

Juventus are headed for the Champions League semifinals and currently enjoy an eight-point lead in Serie A. They look nigh unbeatable at the moment with young Argentine dynamo Paulo Dybala coming into his own and Gonzalo Higuain scoring at will. Juve host 16th-place Genoa on Saturday.

Roma and Napoli appear to be resigned to fighting it out for second place. Fourth-place Lazio trail Napoli by nine points. Roma will expect to hold onto second place as they pay a visit to last-place Pescara while Napoli travel to 15th-place Sasuolo on Saturday.

Next: This week in US Soccer: Mallory Pugh is going pro

Bonus Goal

Here’s Marcelo tearing Bayern to shreds and setting up Ronaldo for his 100th Champions League goal.

Until next week.