Real Madrid can all but seal a 36th La Liga title by defeating Barcelona at the Bernabeu at 3pm ET Sunday in El Clasico.
The affair is made more intriguing by the timing, as Real is celebrating a triumph over Manchester City in the UEFA Champions League quarterfinals while Barcelona exited a day earlier in ugly fashion to Paris Saint-Germain.
Real outlasted City despite being dominated at the Etihad Stadium, scoring early and surviving a 33-8 shots deficit to win via heroics from Andriy Lunin; The Ukrainian made eight saves over 120 minutes and two more in the shootout.
Barcelona, meanwhile, threw away a first-leg advantage over PSG after Ronald Araujo’s early red card at the Camp Nou was followed by a 4-1 loss to Les Parisiens.
Barca is eight points back of Real with seven matches left in the season, which has so far seen no trophies in what will be Xavi’s last season in charge of Blaugrana.
