The latest edition of El Clasico will take place at Bernabeu on Sunday evening, as La Liga leaders Real Madrid welcome third-placed Barcelona to the Spanish capital. Real Madrid are currently 10 points clear of second-placed Sevilla at the top of the table, while Carlo Ancelotti’s side have a 15-point advantage over Barcelona heading into this weekend’s contest.
Real Madrid have announced that the team will don a black kit in El Clasico against Barcelona. The new kit, which has been released this season for Real Madrid’s 120th anniversary, was designed by legendary designer Yohji Yamamoto, who has been collaborating with Adidas for the last two decades.
Barcelona will feature in their third kit for this season which has the colours of the Senyera, the flag which represents the region of Catalonia.
Barcelona have not actually beaten Real Madrid in La Liga since March 2019 – losing four of their last five meetings in Spain’s top flight – but it would be fair to say that they are a different side to the one that lost the reverse match at Camp Nou back in October.
The Catalan outfit have also won their last four league matches, including a 4-0 success over Osasuna last weekend, while they are unbeaten in Spain’s top flight since the start of December, with Xavi taking the team forward since returning to the club as head coach last November.
While Real Madrid have not been in action since Monday, Barcelona played on Thursday evening in Turkey, recording a 2-1 win over Galatasaray to book their spot in the quarter-finals of the Europa League, where they will take on Eintracht Frankfurt for a position in the semi-finals.
Team News:
Real Madrid CF: Karim Benzema has not been ruled out for Sunday’s Clasico against Barcelona, but Real Madrid currently believe that their striker has a 40 per cent chance of participating in the match at the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu.
Rodrygo has been declared fit despite taking a heavy knock against Mallorca, but Ferland Mendy picked up a muscular problem last time out and is unavailable, so Nacho is expected to start at left-back.
FC Barcelona: As for Barcelona, Alejandro Balde, Ansu Fati, Sergi Roberto and Samuel Umtiti remain unavailable for selection, but the Catalan outfit are otherwise in strong shape ahead of the contest.
Head coach Xavi is expected to make a couple of changes from the side that started against Galatasaray, with Dani Alves potentially returning at right-back, while Ousmane Dembele could take the place of Adama Traore to feature alongside Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Ferran Torres in a front three.
Real Madrid vs Barcelona predicted line-ups:
Real Madrid’s predicted line-up (4-3-3): Thibaut Courtois; Dani Carvajal, Eder Militao, David Alaba, Nacho Fernandez; Toni Kroos, Casemiro, Luka Modric; Marco Asensio, Karim Benzema, Vinicius Junior.
Barcelona’s predicted line-up (4-3-3): Marc-Andre ter Stegen; Dani Alves, Gerard Pique, Eric Garcia, Jordi Alba; Pedri, Sergio Busquets, Frenkie de Jong; Ousmane Dembele, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Ferran Torres.
Match Details:
This Sunday’s match between Real Madrid and Barcelona kicks off at 21:00 CET, the local time in Spain.