Real Madrid – Barcelona

The champion Real Madrid hosts the leader Barcelona in the big El Classico of the Spanish football. The game is going to be played at the Santiago Bernabeu in Madrid on Saturday afternoon.

Real Madrid didn’t start the new season in the way they probably wanted to. Zinedine Zidane’s team is 4th in the La Liga standings, trailing on 11 points behind the leader Barcelona. This is truly unacceptable for a club like Real, so they really need to win this game and keep their chances of winning the title alive.

Nobody expected that Real Madrid could start the season in such a bad form. Zidane’s boys made too many mistakes so far and this is the reason why they are on 11 points behind Barca. They know very well that if they lose this game, it’s probably going to be game over for them.

In same time, for Barcelona this is a very good chance to move even closer to winning the league. If they make Real Madrid trail on 14 points behind them, this is probably going to be too much of a distance for Los Merengues to catch up with. A win at the Bernabeu would mean that Barca are kicking Real Madrid off the title race.

Alongside Atletico Madrid, Barca are the only unbeaten team in La Liga so far. They would surely want to keep their perfect record on Saturday afternoon. We can say that even a draw would be a good strategical result for the Catalans. For Real Madrid a draw would be just as same as losing.

Real Madrid still can’t use their Welsh superstar Gareth Bale. The winger is suffering from a muscle injury and at this moment it’s not clear when he would be able to return.

Barcelona are without the injured Paco Alcacer, Gerard Deulofeu and Samuel Umtiti. The good news come from the recovery of Rafinha and Ousmane Dembele, who are tranining again with the squad.