Real Madrid vs Cadiz

Estadio Santiago Bernabeu forms the backdrop for a lopsided La Liga encounter between runaway leaders Real Madrid and relegation fighters Cadiz. 

Turkish teenage sensation Arda Guler was on the scoresheet as Real Madrid squeezed past Real Sociedad 1-0 last weekend to extend their winning La Liga run to six matches and solidify an unassailable 11-point lead at the table’s summit. With only five games left, Los Merengues are on the verge of dethroning Barcelona and lifting their second league title under Carlo Ancelotti. But their quest to win a record-extending 15th Champions League crown is in the balance after a 2-2 first-leg draw against Bayern Munich in their semi-final tie. It could force Ancelotti to shuffle the deck, but Madrid’s formidable La Liga home record this season (W14, D2) should remain intact. They’ve averaged an intimidating 2.5 goals per home league game while registering nine clean sheets across their last 14 such fixtures.

Madrid’s dominant home record spells trouble for Cadiz’s effort to overhaul a five-point deficit on safety and find a way out of a three-game winless league streak (D1, L2). Things get worse as this encounter takes place in the capital, with Cadiz starting this round as one of just two La Liga sides yet to win on the road this season (D6, L10). The visitors’ notoriously uneventful frontline is also the only one in La Liga to have failed to hit double digits in terms of away goals scored (8). Against this backdrop, they’ve been regular on the scoresheet in this fixture, finding the net in seven of their eight top-flight away H2Hs since October 1989. That’s not done Cadiz much good, considering they only won once in that sequence (W1, D2, L5).