Some turbulence in the final approach to the clash at Camp Nou has complicated the picture for Hansi Flick’s Spanish champions, who suffered their first defeat of the season at Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League on Tuesday. By contrast Real Madrid have won four consecutive matches, thrashing RB Leipzig on Wednesday, and starting to look, for the first time since Jose Mourinho’s arrival this summer, like a team. For weeks La Liga leaders Barcelona have been eagerly awaiting Sunday’s Clasico as a chance to stretch the gap between themselves and rivals Real Madrid to a massive nine points.
“Vinicius’s four-match suspension was seen within Real Madrid more as a solution than a problem,” wrote Spanish daily AS.
Mourinho has largely deployed all of his team’s stars when available, despite the difficulty it poses in terms of a cohesive game plan and finding balance between attack and defence. An alternative would be to add an extra midfielder to try and disrupt Flick’s free-flowing Barcelona, a strategy firmly within Mourinho’s wheelhouse, although PSG showed Barca are easier to beat by attacking. The good news for Barcelona is that they still have the Midas touch — everything turns to goals. They have scored at least twice in every match this season.
Record 140 million euro ($157m) signing Yan Diomande offers more defensively and he is starting to hit his stride going forward, meaning the teenager may be Mourinho’s choice against Barca. Barcelona have averaged over four goals a game this season and Raphinha is the league’s top scorer, with 12 goals, three more than Kylian Mbappe has scored for Real Madrid, with Yamal third on eight.
