This would be the first time in a long time that El Classico would be held without any of Cristiano or Lionel Messi being involved, and it would be interesting to see who takes centre stage in this game between arguably the world’s biggest rivals.
Despite the absence of the two biggest stars to have graced this occasion, there is a lot at stake in this game, especially for Real Madrid. Their manager is on the brink of getting the sack and another defeat in this game will see them lose further ground on Barcelona at the top of the La Liga table.
Barcelona performed well in their first game without Lionel Messi when they beat Inter Milan 2-0 in midweek, meanwhile, Real Madrid struggled to overcome Czech minors, Viktoria Plzen in a 2-1 win. That win ended a run of four losses from five games, but this game may have come too early for their confidence.
Real Madrid no doubt have a good record on this ground recently, but their current form makes it hard to see them getting anything out of this game.
The sides met 4 times last season with Real Madrid easy 5-1 aggregate winners in the Spanish Super Cup, however Barca took 4 points off Los Blancos in La Liga. Real did get a point at Camp Nou though and they have avoided defeat on their last 3 league visits to Barcelona. Indeed none of the last 6 league clasicos have resulted in home wins.
