Barcelona vs Real Madrid predictions and match preview for Saturday’s LaLiga match. Read on for the head-to-head, team news and predicted lineups as Spanish football’s eternal rivals renew hostilities.
- DATE: Saturday 24th October 2020
- KICK-OFF: 16:00 (local time)
- VENUE: Camp Nou
- COMPETITION: LaLiga
Barcelona vs Real Madrid Preview
The first Clasico meeting of the season takes place on Saturday and in truth it feels like it could be one of the most underwhelming meetings of these two great rivals in the long history of the fixture.
Both Barcelona and Real Madrid were beaten to nil in LaLiga last time out and both sides look significantly weaker than they were throughout much of the last decade when this fixture was a genuine meeting of the best players in the world. With a few exceptions, that’s no longer the case, and the absence of 98,000 screaming Barça fans will also contribute to making this possibly the weirdest Clasico of all time.
After a trophyless 2019/20 campaign and a difficult summer, few would have expected Barcelona to come into this match as such clear favourites but they will be seen as such. There have been tentative signs of optimism that things may be about to turn around under Ronald Koeman. The continued progress of Ansu Fati and emergence of Pedri are things for Barcelona fans to genuinely get excited about but the balance of the team is still not perfect and they sank to their first defeat under Koeman last weekend at Getafe.
While Barcelona bounced back from that with a convincing Champions League win, things went from bad to worse for Real Madrid, four days on from a surprise home defeat against newly promoted Cadiz. Another atrocious 1st Half display saw them fall 3-0 down to Shakhtar Donetsk at the break. An improving showing after the interval and a screamer from Luka Modric helped cut the deficit but it couldn’t prevent Los Blancos from suffering a second home defeat in the space of five days.
The relentless focus that helped deliver ten straight wins and a league title after lockdown last season has seemingly slipped but nothing sharpens the mind like the Clasico. A repeat of that kind of lethargic opening seems highly unlikely from Madrid here but the alarm bells will certainly be ringing for Zinedine Zidane if his side suffer a third straight defeat on Saturday.
Head to Head
- Last 6 Competitive Meetings: 3 Barcelona Wins, 1 Real Madrid Win, 2 Draws.
- 3 of the last 4 meetings at Camp Nou have been drawn.
- Real Madrid took four points from last season’s Clasicos, drawing 0-0 in Barcelona and winning 2-0 in Madrid.
- They’ve not won away to Barcelona since a 3-1 Supercopa win in 2017.
Team News
Marc-André ter Stegen is out injured while Jordi Alba remains a doubt so Sergino Dest looks set for another start at left-back.
Eden Hazard, Martin Ødegaard and Dani Carvajal are the main absentees for Real Madrid. The likes of Sergio Ramos, Toni Kroos and Karim Benzema should all return having been left out in midweek.
Predicted Barcelona Starting Lineup:
Neto – Dest, Lenglet, Pique, Roberto – De Jong, Busquets – Fati, Coutinho, Griezmann – Messi (4-2-3-1)
Predicted Real Madrid Starting Lineup:
Courtois – Mendy, Ramos, Varane, Nacho – Kroos, Casemiro, Valverde – Modric – Vincius, Benzema (4-3-1-2)
Barcelona vs Real Madrid Predictions
Score Prediction: Barcelona 1-1 Real Madrid
Real Madrid will be wounded by what has happened over the past week but this is still basically the same side that had much the better of last season’s Clasicos and probably should have won both games. Barcelona look to have more goals in them but Koeman looks no nearer to solving the ‘Griezmann problem’ and they also have their own defensive vulnerabilities. Given the current climate at both clubs, a draw might just suit the two coaches here and it’d be no surprise if that’s how it finished.
LaLiga Betting Tips (18+)
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