Luxury in the goal

The luck of the Classic is in your hands. In his gloves. Of the performance, the inspiration and the reflections of Courtois and Ter Stegen depends on the clashes between Real Madrid and Barca do not mark a historic milestone: Never before has there been two 0-0 in the clashes between the two in the same season.

From less to more, this Courtois campaign It is offering your best version. At the start of the season everything was Doubts about a goalkeeper who was seven months (14 games) without leaving zero the white goal. In contrast, this season he has achieved it in 14 of 30 games. He has bolted his goal. Only in 72-73 did Madrid have fewer goals conceded in the League after 25 days and walk towards the conquest of first Zamora white since Casillas got it in 2007-08. The Belgian international has 14 goals conceded in 22 league games; an average of 0.64 points per game that represents the best ratio of his career in a regularity tournament (either in LaLiga or in the Premier). His percentage of stops in the league amounts to 75% (the general is 73%) and has gone through streaks of matches touching and even exceeding 90%.

By contrast, Ter Stegen is registering his worst numbers in the four seasons he has been in the title of Barça. For the first time, the German international league average exceeds the goal conceded per game (1.13, almost double that of its opponent tonight) in the season with its worst percentage of league stops (66%), an index of success less than 70% accumulated of all competitions. He has only kept the goal to zero in ten games (seven in the League). Despite the situation, your recent resume guarantees you as a guarantee insurance. Since he tied the title, he is the second goalkeeper of the five major European leagues that more times (55) has left the goal to zero, behind Oblak (68).

Courtois holds Madrid in drought

Courtois has given Madrid four points by not having fit in four of the six games in which Madrid was left unmarked and left the goal to zero in three other wins by the minimum. Instead, Ter Stegen only maintained his impregnable goal in one of the four League matches in which Barça resisted the opposite goal (precisely the Classic), in addition to the 1-0 against Atlético and Granada.

Face to face

• Courtois never beat Ter Stegen. The German has three wins and two draws in five games.
• The Belgian only won one of his 15 games (7 draws and 7 losses) against Barça: the return of the quarterfinals of the Champions League in 2014. He has conceded 26 goals.
• The German balance against Madrid It is 5 wins, 4 draws, 2 losses and 12 goals received.
• 9 goals Messi is the second greatest executioner of Courtois, just behind Cristiano (10 goals).