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Brace yourselves ladies and gentlemen, El Clasico is here again. It's time for Spain's finest to entertain the rest of the world with some astonishing high tempo football and unbelievable skill, not forgetting some atrocious play-acting too!

Let's concentrate on the good bit though (the football). Barcelona certainly had the edge over their great rivals in this fixture last season, winning three of their six meetings and losing just once to Real Madrid.

However, in truth the contests were much closer than those statistics suggest, with only one of the games being decided by more than one clear goal - a 3-1 away win for the Catalan club in La Liga.

In fact, the last time these giants met at the Camp Nou was right at the end of last season where the champions returned the favour with a 2-1 win of their own.

It would seem a close one to call then. Both teams possess magical players in Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo - I'm more of a Messi man myself - who can produce a goal from nowhere and that's what makes El Clasico so exciting.

Barcelona are always the team who dominate possession but with the likes of Ronaldo and Mesut Ozil on the counter, Real Madrid will always trouble Carles Puyol's aging legs.

Real seemed to relish the hostile atmosphere at the Camp Nou last season too, scoring twice on each visit, and I would fancy them to get something here too.

Considering the champions only lost once there last term, and that to a last-gasp Messi strike, I suspect that they will come away with a positive result for the second leg.

For those reasons, it would seem that you could do a lot worse than back the draw at 3.95

Over 3.5 goals

El Clasico rained goals last season, with each one of the six games producing over 2.5 goals.

What's more, two-thirds of those produced in excess of 3.5 goals as the two opposing styles lent themselves to vulnerability at the back.

The two legs of the Spanish Supercup alone produced nine goals, so betting on another open encounter with plenty of goals seems most appealing at 2.66. Without the pressures of league points, the gloves will surely be off.

First Goalscorer

Both teams are littered with goal threats but there are obviously two candidates that stick out above all the rest. After all, Messi and Ronaldo bagged nearly 100 goals between them in the league alone in 2011/12.

No-one found the net more than the Portuguese in this fixture too as he scored four times, though the diminutive Argentinian wasn't far behind - bagging three for himself.

It's pretty much a toss-up here but with Messi's electric start to the campaign against Real Sociedad, scoring twice inside the first 20 minutes, I am more inclined to back him at likely odds of around 4.7 to draw first blood.

Best Bet: Back Messi to score first @ 4.7
Recommended Bet: Back over 3.5 goals @ 2.66

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