21 names in Clásico squad

On the day before yet another Clásico, the fourth official one and the fifth in total this season, Xavi Hernández has named his squad.

A win would open the gap at the top of the Liga table to a practically unassailable 12 points but a defeat would narrow it to six. So there is a lot at stake in the Sunday 9pm CET kick-off.

Pedri still out

Pedri had been back training with the squad this week, and there was some hope that his hamstring worries were over, but he has not recovered in time and has also been dropped from Luis de la Fuente's Spain squad despite originally being called up.

The full list of players is thus as follows: Ter Stegen, Araujo, Sergio, Gavi, Lewandowski, Ansu Fati, Ferran, Iñaki Peña, Christensen, Marcos Alonso, Jordi Alba, Kessie, S. Roberto, F. De Jong, Raphinha, Kounde, Eric, Balde, Pablo Torre, Arnau Tenas and Alarcón.

One final workout

The squad was announced shortly after the team had trained for the last time before the game. The venue on Saturday morning was the Tito Vilanova field at the Ciutat Esportiva, where the first team regulars were joined by Eder Aller of the U16 squad and Martin Georgiev and Gerard González of the U19s.