Perhaps the two best teams in the world meet in four upcoming matches as Real Madrid and Barcelona start things off in a La Liga match at Santiago Bernabeu on Saturday.

On Wednesday, the two face each other in the Cop del Rey final, and then meet twice more in Champions League action on April 27th and May 3rd.

In fact, Saturday's match is probably the most meaningless of the four.

Real Madrid are down by eight points to Barcelona in the La Liga standings, and a Los Galacticos victory would only cut the deficit to five points with six games remaining.

Pride won't allow Real Madrid to not give all four matches a 100 percent effort, especially after Barcelona gave Real Madrid a 5-0 thumping at Camp Nou.

But despite Jose Mourinho likely having his heart set on avenging the November loss, he might consider saving the best tricks up his sleeve for the Copa del Rey title match. While not over-working his players on Saturday, Mourinho could also tinker with his lineup, to see what would work on Wednesday.

Such strategy is probably needed. Barcelona has been a dominate force this season, and game-planning with an outside-of-the-box mentality might be the only way to beat Barcelona.

Mourinho, a former Chelsea manager, might look back at his former London foe Arsenal to observe how the Gunners were able to beat Barcelona 2-1, back on February 16th.

Indeed, Barcelona has been so dominant that the club has only two other losses, and they came against Real Betis on January 19th and Hercules on September 11th.

Pep Guardiola employs a dizzying passing game that thrives off of time of possession, and which throws off opponents' rhythm.

It's also hard to not be dominant when Barcelona has the best striker in the world in Lionel Messi, a steady goalkeeper in Victor Valdes, as well as a collection of players who starred for the 2010 World Cup Champion Spain squad.

That's not to say Real Madrid will be intimidated by Barcelona's extraordinary talent, because Mourinho has plenty of elite players himself. Cristiano Ronaldo, Mesut Ozil, Angel Di Maria, Gonzalo Higuain, and Iker Casillas would be centerpieces on nearly every club in the world.

Real Madrid will face a Barcelona squad that continues to be without Eric Abidal. However, central defender Carlos Puyol might be back in action.

Said Guardiola: He'll travel with us and tomorrow we'll decide if he plays. It's a question of seeing how he progresses but the last three or four days the pain has gone away.

Real Madrid Lionel Messi Real Madrid Lionel Messi