PREVIEW | Real Madrid v FC Barcelona

The first Clásico of the season is here with Barça topping La Liga and coming off the back of an excellent win in midweek over Bayern Munich in the Champions League. Hansi Flick's team will go out on to the pitch at the Santiago Bernabéu for Saturday's 9pm CEST kick off feeling they have nothing to fear. Furthermore, to mark the occasion, the blaugranes will be wearing a special jersey bearing the name of the British band Coldplay to celebrate their new album 'Moon Music'. 

Two teams in form 

The fixture that is followed by fans all over the worlds sees two in form teams face each other in La Liga in Madrid. Barça top the table with 27 points from a possible 30 so far in La Liga but Carlo Ancelotti's team are only three points behind and on a high after coming back from 2-0 down to win 5-2 at home against Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League in midweek. 

It will be a heavyweight clash in the Bernabeú with the blaugranes looking at a great opportunity to end a negative run of results in the fixture in recent seasons after 10 defeats in their last 14 games against Real Madrid. Nevertheless, despite only being in charge of the side since the summer, blaugrana coach Hansi Flick seems to have the team playing some great football with the prospect that they can even improve even further. 

Important absences 

Both side will be without their first choice goalkeepers for the game on Saturday. Barça keeper Marc ter Stegen sustained a serious knee injury in September and this week Real Madrid's Thibaut Courtois picked up an injury that means Iñaki Peña and Andriy Lunin will probably be between the posts for the teams in the Santiago Bernabéu. Carlo Ancelotti will also be missing the likes of Dani Carvajal, David Alaba and Rodrygo. Hansi Flick has welcomed back players from injury recently but is still without Ronald Araujo, Andreas Christensen, Marc Bernal, Ferran Torres and Eric Garcia for the Clásico. 

It is still early days in the race for the league title in 2024/25 with Saturday's game coming in week 11 of the season. Barça top La Liga having dropped just three points this season but they remain only three points ahead of their big rivals. Nevertheless, the Clásico is never just about three points in La Liga and a win on Saturday would be another feather in the cap of this new look Barça side.