Messi's goal drought and Ronaldo's woeful assist record – El Clasico in Opta numbers

Barcelona meet Real Madrid in LaLiga 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.
 

MESSI V RONALDO

- 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.

- 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 goal-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) scored more goals against Barcelona for Real Madrid than Ronaldo.

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

LUIS ENRIQUE AND MSN

- Luis Enrique will face Real Madrid for the seventh time as a LaLiga 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 LaLiga 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 LaLiga. 
 

CLASICO FACTS AND FIGURES

- 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 LaLiga and that game ended in a 5-5 draw back in 1943.

- Victory would give Barcelona their 50th home win over their rivals in LaLiga.

- 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.