FC Barcelona and Real Madrid will one again meet in the world’s biggest club football derby, El Clasico.
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FC Barcelona head coach Hansi Flick will field a new look defence when his team takes on Real Madrid in El Clasico on Sunday afternoon in Spain.
The German is suspended for the latest installment of club football’s biggest fixture, after being sent off in the Catalan derby Barca won 2-1 against Girona last weekend.
Still Flick has a say in picking the first XI he will then place under the care of his staff member Marcus Sorg.
To help protect Wojciech Szczesny’s Flick has gone for a pretty new centreback pairing of Eric Garcia and Pau Cubarsi.
Eric is Flick’s Swiss army knife who usually stars in defensive midfield or right back, but Jules Kounde being given the all-clear means the Frenchman will be fielded in that latter position while Alejandro Balde is on the other flank.
As the anchor in the centre of the park, Frenkie de Jong provides support to Pedri and a more advanced Fermin Lopez, who will look to finally have a goal allowed against Real Madrid after his sensational breakthrough strike in Dallas during the preseason tour of the summer of 2023.
FC Barcelona’s attack is also adapted
Raphinha is out as we know, and could be sidelined for another month, meaning Marcus Rashford is the left winger.
Lamine Yamal has put fire into the build up of the clash by saying that Madrid “robs and complains”, and he will be on the right wing looking to feed striker Ferran Torres and repeat his goalscoring exploits that saw Barca win 4-0 in this ground a year ago.
FC Barcelona beat Real Madrid four times in El Clasico in 2024/2025.
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Real Madrid will look to revert four Clasico losses to FC Barcelona
As for Madrid, goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois has a back line of Alvaro Carreras, Dean Huijsen and Eder Militao in front of him, with coach Xabi Alonso going for Fede Valverde at right back as opposed to Dani Carvajal while Trent Alexander-Arnold is injured.
Aurelien Tchoumanei is the pivot, with a duo of Jude Bellingham and Eder Guler looking to contain Pedri but also feed the attack.
With Rodrygo on the bench, a Kylian Mbappe in the form of his life is the central number 9 flanked by a Brazil-Argentina pairing of Vinicius Junior and Franco Mastantuono striving to revert four losses in El Clasico to FC Barcelona last season.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomsanderson/2025/10/26/fc-barcelona-real-madrid-el-clasico-line-ups/
