(CNN) -- Barcelona and Real Madrid have both played down suggestions that Saturday's "El Clasico" showdown will decide the Spanish league title. With eight matches left in the season, the two bitter rivals are locked on 77 points at the top of the table with Real ahead by just one goal on "for-and-against" differential. Barcelona coach Josep Guardiola  said his team would treat the match -- traditionally the biggest fixtures in the La Liga schedule -- as "a final" but insisted that defeat would not be terminal for either team's title hopes. "If there were only three or four games to go I would say it is an almost decisive match, but when there are seven left afterwards it's not so much -- but it is very important," he told reporters on Friday.
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Real Madrid and Barcelona locked on 77 points at the top of the Spanish league table
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Real have slight edge by just one goal on "for-and-against" differential with eight games left
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Both teams' coaches insist that victory will not decide the La Liga crown
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Defending champions Barcelona won the 79th "El Clasico" 1-0 at home in November
@placeholder have won 50 of the 79 encounters between the two teams since 1929, losing just 15 times.