Barcelona and Real Madrid face a new Classic in the history of Spanish football. It will be number 253 among all the competitions with very even figures: the whites have 101 wins, compared to 99 for the blaugrana, with 52 draws. The madridistas, who linked five consecutive victories at the hands of Zidane and Ancelotti, are about to see how their Barcelona rivals reach a hundred wins in their direct duels.
For this meeting, both Xavi and Carlo Ancelotti will be able to count on their eleven gala. To begin with, neither of the two teams have sanctioned players who will miss this match. But let’s go in parts: the azulgranas arrived at the last day with the alert Busquets, Raphinha, Ferran Torres and Kessié. None were booked in their match against Athletic. On the part of Madrid, neither Nacho nor Camavinga saw the yellow card in their match against Espanyol. Carvajal is the third player who has been booked to reach the Clásico: in his case, he saw the card for kicking the ball away after the referee had pointed out a foul by the blue and white team (against the whites they played with a pink shirt).
On the Barca side, Xavi recovers Araújo, who will once again be a right back to close Vinicius, something that has been getting lately. The drop is again Pedri, who seemed to have overcome an injury that has kept him out for nearly a month: the canary had to retire injured in the first leg of the Europa League against Manchester United. He suffered a rectus femoris injury in his right leg after making a pass from behind. Everything indicated that he would be back, but In the penultimate training session he had bad feelings, so it seems he will be low for this match and for the call with the Spanish National Team. The other absence will be that of Ousmane Dembelé that, despite being able to be available, it will be low to avoid risks. The French footballer suffered an injury to the rectus femoris of the left thigh in a league match against Girona. Due to his history of muscular injuries, it is preferred that he not play this Classic to be available later.
While, Real Madrid only has the loss of David Alaba. The Austrian defender was injured three weeks ago during Real Madrid’s visit to Anfield to face Liverpool. The defender had to retire after half an hour of play, being replaced by Nacho, who since then has been occupying that position along with Camavinga. Alaba suffered a hamstring tear, which has caused him to miss the last four games for the Whites. Last Tuesday, the day before facing Liverpool at the Santiago Bernabéu, he was seen jogging across the Valdebebas pitch, he embraced Ancelotti and sat on a bench to talk with both the white coach and the doctor. madridista The other two players who were touched, Karim Benzema and Ferland Mendy, are already recovered. The former already played against Liverpool at the Castellana Coliseum (he was the scorer of the only goal of the match), while the latter was on the bench getting to warm up but finally ran out of minutes of play. The two Frenchmen from the white team will be available for the Clásico.