Messi Neymar

Messi Neymar having fun at Barcelona training

Messi Neymar having fun at Barcelona training

The next edition of the world’s most popular football rivalry, El Clasico, looms this Saturday for both Barcelona and Real Madrid. With matches that are fraught with drama and anticipation, intrigue and a fair amount flare, it’s absolutely normal to expect a bit of nerves.

Messi Neymar having fun at Barcelona training

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Well, Barcelona duo Lionel Messi Neymar sure don’t seem to be feeling any sort of nerve shattering pressure. At training on Thursday the pair put on a really delightful display of juggling and finishing that entertained everyone.

The premise seems fairly straightforward. Messi and Neymar juggle a ball relentlessly while approaching a mini net, then drop a header and then continue around the circuit. For normal people, this would probably take more than ages to pull off. These two, of course, aren’t what you call normal people.

 Laughing and smiling during the drill, they really make it look fun and easy … probably because it is. Neymar even lets blissfully his Brazilian style shine through with a nifty and impresisve bicycle kick to cap things off. The finish although narrowly misses the mini net, but 3-out-of-4 isn’t too shabby at all.

Perhaps unlike their rivals, MSN have over and over proven they can be more than the sum of their individual parts. Neymar and Suarez stepped up in Messi’s absence gallantly earlier this term, scoring all 14 of Barca’s goals in a five-game spell only missed by the Argentine due to a knee injury.

The three have all had their say in the Clasicos past too – Messi is the fixture’s record goalscorer as of now with 14 in 19 games, while Neymar (three in five games) and Suarez (three in three) have also hit the ground running. So every opponent, as well as Real Madrid have to keep themselves alert against the lethal combination of Suarez, Messi and Neymar.

Ronaldo (seven in 13) and Karim Benzema (five in 13) have passable goal records in the fixture – although Bale does not.