El Clasico is extra special because it comes but twice a year; usually. Sometimes we get three, or even four Clasicos in a season, as FC Barcelona and Real Madrid sometimes clash in tournaments, in addition to the two guaranteed meetings in La Liga every term. We had four in the last campaign, with Barcelona taking all of them, and doing so by an aggregate score of 16-7. So Barca have certainly seized the momentum in this rivalry, but it’s a new year and we’ll see what happens on Sunday.
El Clasico FYIs
Kickoff: Sun Oct. 26 5:15 PM, El Estadio Santiago Bernabeu, Madrid, Spain
Team News: FC Barcelona Real Madrid
Overall Series History: Real Madrid wins 106 FC Barcelona wins 104 Draws 51
Odds: Real Madrid wins 10/11 FC Barcelona wins 15/8 A Draw 12/5
Here’s our best guess as to what Xabi Alonso and Hansi Flick might decide to do with their first team selections.
Starting XI Predictions
Barca
Wojciech Szczesny; Eric Garcia, Ronald Araujo, Pau Cubarsi, Alejandro Balde; Pedri, Frenkie de Jong; Lamine Yamal, Fermin Lopez, Marcus Rashford; Ferran Torres
Real Madrid
Thibaut Courtois; Federico Valverde, Eder Militao, Marco Asencio, Alvaro Carreras; Arda Guler, Aurelien Tchouameni, Jude Bellingham; Franco Mastantuono, Kylian Mbappe, Vinicius Jr.
Paul M. Banks is the Founding Editor of The Sports Bank. He’s also the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He currently contributes to USA Today’s NFL Wires Network. His past bylines include the New York Daily News, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune. His work has been featured in numerous outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, the Washington Post and ESPN. You can follow him on Linked In and Twitter