Who: Real Betis vs Real Madrid
What: Spanish La Liga
Where: Estadio La Cartuja de Sevilla in Seville, Spain
When: Friday at 9pm (20:00 GMT)
How to follow: We’ll have all the build-up on Al Jazeera Sport from 17:00 GMT in advance of our live text commentary stream.
Real Madrid will continue their pursuit of league leaders Barcelona when they travel to Real Betis on Friday, but the record La Liga winners know that any slip-up now will be terminal for their hopes of lifting silverware this season.
Barca play at Getafe on Saturday but only narrowly beat Celta Vigo on Wednesday to respond to Real’s latest win a day earlier.
It has been a turbulent season for Los Blancos on and off the field, but they are still fighting. Al Jazeera Sport takes a closer look at their latest fixture.
Barcelona are nine points clear of Real after their 1-0 win against Celta Vigo.
The two Spanish giants have been eliminated from the UEFA Champions League, where they both stood as favourites.
The quarterfinal exits for both came as a shock and leave all focus now on the La Liga race, which has only six rounds of matches remaining.
Real’s season has lurched from bad to worse. Their run of 13 wins from the first 14 games of the season under new coach Xabi Alonso is a distant memory.
Barcelona have long since held a grip on the La Liga title, which has been strengthened by Los Blancos winning just one of their last three league matches.
Back-to-back La Liga defeats in March at Osasuna and at home to Getafe handed Barca full control of the league although a run of three wins thereafter kept them on the Catalans’ tails.
There is little doubt, though, that no further points can be dropped from this point forward for the Madrid giants.
Including the Champions League defeats by Bayern Munich, Real’s 2-1 win against Alaves on Tuesday was their first win in five matches, a run that saw them lose three games.
One of the hopes that Real are clinging to in the final six games of the La Liga season is that they do still have to play Barcelona in a Clasico.
The match on May 10 at Barcelona will offer the chance to trim their rivals lead, if only by three points. Three further rounds of La Liga matches will follow that game.
Real Madrid stormed to a 5-1 home win in their previous La Liga meeting this season with Gonzalo Garcia netting a hat-trick in the fixture on January 4.
Raul Asencio and Fran Garcia were also on the scoresheet while Cucho Hernandez scored a consolation goal midway through the second half for Betis.
Betis came from behind to win 2-1 at home against Real Madrid in this fixture last season.
Brahim Diaz had given Los Blancos the lead, but Johnny Cardoso and Isco, with a penalty against his former club, turned the game.
This will be the 143rd meeting between the sides with Real winning 78 of the matches while Real Betis have emerged victorious on 32 occasions.
Betis have former Manchester United winger Antony back from a one-match suspension.
Junior Firpo misses out with a knock, but Diego Llorente and Angel Ortiz are still in with a chance of featuring despite ankle and muscle problems, respectively.
Valles; Bellerin, Bartra, Natan, Rodriguez; Amrabat, Roca; Antony, Fornals, Ezzalzouli; Hernandez
Real’s faint hopes of overhauling Barcelona in La Liga suffered a further blow on Thursday with both Eder Militao and Arda Guler ruled out for the rest of the season.
Brazilian defender Militao has a left thigh injury while Turkish attacking midfielder Guler is sidelined with a right thigh problem, the club said.
For now, neither Militao, 28, nor 21-year-old Guler is considered at risk of missing the World Cup finals.
Lunin; Alexander-Arnold, Rudiger, Huijsen, Carreras; Valverde, Bellingham, Tchouameni, Guler; Vinicius, Mbappe
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