A Clásico like any other?
We take a look take a look at the major talking points ahead of Sunday's Clásico clash between Barcelona and Real Madrid.
In many ways, Sunday's derby clash means significantly less than in recent years. The La Liga title is already decided, Barca have nothing left to play for this season and Madrid have the Champions League final looming ever closer on the horizon.
However, this is a Clásico and Clásicos are always important.
The loathing between these two sides cannot be understated and it is the sub-plots within Sunday's game that give the game it major appeal.
The main one being Barca's attempt to complete a whole La Liga season unbeaten.
- Immortality awaits? -
The Catalans have already broken the record for the longest unbeaten streak in La Liga history and there is nothing that would please their arch-rivals more than preventing them from getting their hands on another piece of history.
Just four games separate Barca from immortality by means of invincibility and a positive result against the reigning European champions would be a fine way to end a dominant domestic campaign.
Equally, it provides Real Madrid with yet another chance to prove that they are the team for the big occasion and that it was they who lost the title rather than Barca winning it.
- Iniesta's farewell -
Having shaken off a calf injury to be included in the travelling party, Andres Iniesta is likely to make his final Clásico appearance in the game as the playmaker's farewell tour makes one of its last stops.
Whether the 33-year-old is able to play from the start is yet to be seen, but one final slaying of the old enemy would be a fitting way for him took look back on the many Clásico clashes he has contested.
In the same vein, the game also provides Philippe Coutinho - earmarked as Iniesta's long.term successor - with the perfect opportunity to show that he is the player to make Barca fans forgetting about their departing hero.
- Revenge -
Barcelona cruised to a rather routine 3-0 win over Real Madrid at the Bernabeu in December and whilst any Clasico defeat hurts, such a humbling on home soil is agony to any 'Madridista' or 'Cule'.
Sunday represents one last chance at revenge before the season winds down and club football takes a backseat.
- Guard of Honor -
Bizarrely, one of the most talked-about topics in the run-up to the game has been whether or not Real Madrid will give their rivals a guard of honour and you will all be shocked to hear that they won't be doing so.
Real Madrid boss Zinedine Zidane insists his decision is due to Barcelona not previously respecting the tradition rather than any lingering pettiness, but it does seem an unneccessary quibble ahead of what we all hope will be a festival of football.
- Battle for the Golden Boot -
Last, but not least, the battle for the Golden Boot. Lionel Messi's hat-trick last week makes him clear favourite to claim the gong, but given Cristiano Ronaldo's form in 2018, you never know. The Argentine currently leads his rival by eight goals (32 to Ronaldo's 24) with four games to play, with Ronaldo at risk of being leapfrogged by Messi' fellow Barca star Luis Suarez, who sits just a goal further back on 23.