La Liga Preview: Barcelona vs Real Madrid

Lionel Messi-Barcelona

Barcelona will host Real Madrid in the first El Clasico of the season.

Stadium: Camp Nou

Key statistics

  • Real Madrid have drawn and won in the last season’s two Clasico games in La Liga.
  • Barcelona failed to score in both the games last season and the last time they had such a drought was between 1957 and 1958.

Betting Odds

Barcelona : Draw : Real Madrid :: 1.95 : 3.60 : 3.60

Probability

Barcelona : Draw : Real Madrid :: 48% : 26% : 26%

Barcelona

Barcelona will be playing the first El Clasico of the season after an emphatic win against Ferencvaros in Champions League on Wednesday.

As far as the La Liga form is concerned, Barca have been winless in the last two games including a defeat against Getafe.

Barca would look turn the tide against their arch-rivals after losing in both the Clasicos last season.

Lionel Messi has undergone a drought in last few Clasicos despite being the top scorer of the competition.

Ronald Koeman will oversee his first Clasico as the manager and the Dutch gaffer has a great attacking line-up – likes of Pedri, Fati, Trinaco, Coutinho – at his disposal.

Jordi Alba is expected to return for action on Saturday but it remains to be seen whether he will make to the starting line-up.

Possible line-up

Neto, Pique, Lenglet, Roberto,  Dest, De Jong, Busquets, Fati, Coutinho, Trincao, Messi

Injured players

Marc Andre Ter Stegen, Matheus Fernandes.

Doubtful

Jordi Alba

Real Madrid 

Real Madrid have no time to react to their defeats this week as they are slated to face Barcelona on Saturday.

First one was at home against Cadiz and Madrid followed up with another defeat against Shakhtar Donetsk in Champions League on Wednesday.

Unlike the last time, Barca have slightly upped their ante, especially at the attacking end.

The injury list also doesn’t help either for the defending champions, who will miss the services of Eden Hazard and Martin Odegaard.

Possible line-up

Courtois, Marcelo, Ramos, Varane, Mendy, Casemiro, Kroos, Modric, Asensio, Benzema, Vinicius Junior.

Injured players

Eden Hazard, Martin Odegaard, Dani Carvajal, Alvaro Odriozola

“I think I’m capable of fixing this and that’s what I’ll try to do. The players will too. We need to find solutions and we will. The season has just started and we need to turn this around by being united. It’s a second bad match in a row, but now we have to prepare for the next match on Saturday.”

Zinedine Zidane, Real Madrid manager