Xavi wary of Vinicius threat in Thursday’s El Clasico

Barcelona head into Thursday’s Copa del Rey semi-final first leg against Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu in a bit of disarray.

Two successive defeats have dented the feel-good spirit in the first team squad, while at least three key players will be missing. Robert Lewandowski, Ousmane Dembele and Pedri will all be absent from Thursday’s first leg, although they are expected to return for the second leg next month.

Barcelona have already lost at the Bernabeu this season, and Xavi Hernandez have labelled their El Clasico rivals as “clear favourites” for Thursday’s match. The Barca head coach also spoke of Vinicius Jr, whom he considers to be Real Madrid’s most important player.

“Vinicius makes the difference. He’s an exceptional player and he scores goals. He’s a player we have to keep an eye on. He’s playing at a very high level.”

Meanwhile, with three El Clasico's coming in the next 35 days, let's take a look at some numbers that could define the matchup:

8: Goals allowed by Barcelona in 23 league matches

This is a bit of a misleading statistic as while Barca allows 0.35 goals per La Liga match played, it's a number that ballons when they enter cup competition. Across 15 cup matches this season, Barcelona have allowed 19 goals for a much more reasonable 1.23 goals allowed per match. While that's still a great number, it does show that when Barcelona's defense is tested by good attackers -- which Real Madrid have -- that their defense can be bested. It's especially an issue when Barcelona are doing things like playing Marcos Alonso at center back which is great for a possession-based game but can come back to haunt them if they're on the back foot.

Losses for Los Blancos when Karim Benzema has scored

It may feel simplistic to boil things down to, if Benzema scores, Real Madrid win, but this season it has proven to be quite true. Benzema has struggled with fitness this season but he has still scored in an astonishing 14 matches across all competitions. The only losses for the team when he scores have been to Villarreal and ... Barcelona in the Spanish Super Cup final. Benzema will want to have a different outcome in this match but it is one that will be defined by the strikers.

Barcelona and Real Madrid's head-to-head record this season

Despite what the table may say, these teams can't be separated by much with one winning each match so far this season, 3-1. Real Madrid's win at home came back in October with both teams having relatively full-strength lineups. Barcelona won in a neutral venue but Real Madrid had quite a big loss with Eduardo Camavinga sitting at the base of midfield instead of Aurelien Tchouameni. 

Tchouameni may be the next most important player to Real Madrid after Benzema since they don't have another natural defensive midfielder with Casemiro now at Manchester United, but he won't be able to slow Barcelona's attack on his own.

Robert Lewandowski will likely miss El Clasico with a hamstring injury but Ferran Torres can fill in when needed in the role while Raphina has shined with Ousmane Dembele sidelined. Xavi will want to bounce back from being knocked out of Europa League while if the Real Madrid that put five goals unanswered past Liverpool shows up, it'll be quite the show.