Real Madrid vs Barcelona: Five things to look out for in the double El Clasico week

1) Lionel Messi - The Extraterrestrial

The magician of the beautiful game - Leo Messi

For a player who has been the heartbeat of FC Barcelona since the dawn of the last decade, Lionel Messi's spell with the Catalan club has been nothing short of a fairy tale. Considered by many as the greatest ever player to have graced the football field, the diminutive Argentinean has mesmerized spectators with the magic he creates, each time he has the ball at his control.

Lionel Messi was going through a rough patch of late, with a few goal-less matches in which he failed to inspire Barcelona over the finish line. However, one can't write Messi off and he proved that once again against his favorite opponents- Sevilla. After scoring a memorable equalizer, he piled on the misery at the Ramon Sanchez-Pizjuan stadium by scoring the 50th hattrick of his career.

Messi has a bad habit of scoring in the El Clasico and he has troubled Real Madrid many times over. Even though Vinicius Jr. says Real don't fear him, the world is a witness of the destructive powers of this little man. Messi would be heading into the matches full of confidence and that would definitely be a bad omen for Real Madrid.