Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi will undoubtedly be the central focus when Real Madrid and Barcelona face off in the Champions League on Sunday. However, every superhero needs his sidekick and each superstar has a wealth of those on their respective clubs. Who are the other major offensive leaders on Real Madrid and Barcelona?
Real Madrid
Ronaldo is the third piece of a dangerous offensive trio known as the BBC. Gareth Bale and Karim Benzema are the other two pieces and have proven themselves huge parts of Madrid's terrific season. Benzema enters the match with 15 Spanish League goals; his best performance for the club came in 2011-12 when he scored 21 and Madrid won the title. He struggled to replicate that form in recent seasons but has managed to find a way to do so with the help of Bale and Ronaldo. According to WhoScored, he averages 2.6 shots and 24.4 passes per game. His pass success is close to 81.5 percent.
Gareth Bale has 10 goals and 11 assists in his debut season for Real Madrid. The Welsh star has proven to be a tremendous asset on the wing where his speed and skills have added a new dimension to Madrid's attack. He averages 25.8 passes per game and about 2.9 shots per game. He will be looking to redeem his poor performance against Barcelona back when the two sides faced off at the Camp Nou.
Aside from those two players, Madrid has a terrific midfield trio that includes Angelo Di Maria, Luka Modric and Xabi Alonso. Di Maria has three goals and eight assists and averages 42.7 passes per game. Modric has one goal and six assists but averages 59.5 passes per game with an 89.3 success rate. Alonso has one assists but he completes an average of 67.7 passes per game with an 88.4 percent success rate.
Barcelona
Lionel Messi has a plethora of wingmen who actually had to pick up the slack for Barcelona in his absence. Alexis Sanchez was the player to shine most brightly while Messi was down for about four months. He has scored 17 goals and seven assists in the Spanish league and even scored the winner against Real Madrid back in October.
Pedro is Barcelona's third leading scorer with 14 goals and eight assists on the year.
The other two big scorers for Barcelona are Cesc Fabregas and Neymar, two players that could find themselves on the bench for the upcoming tie. Both teams were left on the bench during Barcelona's 7-0 win over Osasuna this weekend. Neymar has seven goals and eight assists in the Spanish League this season, but has only one goal and one assist in 2014 for the team. Fabregas has eight goals and 12 assists this season; however, his benching would like be the result of coach Gerardo Martino favoring Xavi and Andres Iniesta in his starting XI.
Xavi and Iniesta are the two other major pieces in Barcelona's midfield; they are arguably the most important players for Messi. Iniesta averages 64.1 passes per game at a 91.1 success rate. Xavi completes an astonishing 92.3 passes per game with a terrific 93.2 percent success rate.
Which superstar has a better supporting cast in the offensive end?