Real Madrid CF (1st, 24pts) vs FC Barcelona (2nd, 22pts)
Competition/Round: 2025-26 La Liga, Matchday 10
Barcelona Outs & Doubts: Marc-André ter Stegen, Joan Garcia, Gavi, Robert Lewandowski, Raphinha, Andreas Christensen, Dani Olmo (out)
Real Madrid Outs & Doubts:
David Alaba, Antonio Rüdiger (out)
Date/Time: Sunday, October 26, 2025, 4.15pm CET/WAT (Barcelona & Nigeria), 3.15pm GMT (UK), 11.15am ET, 8.15am PT (USA), 8.45pm IST (India)
Venue: Estadio Santiago Bernabéu, Madrid, Spain
Referee: César Soto Grado
VAR: Javier Iglesias Villanueva
How to watch on TV: ESPN 2 (USA), Premier Sports 1 (UK), SuperSport (Nigeria), others
How to watch online: ESPN+ (USA), Premier Sports Player (UK), FanCode (India), DAZN (Spain), others
Following a dominant win over Olympiacos to return to winning ways in the Champions League in midweek, Barcelona face their biggest test of the season so far as the Catalans travel to the Spanish capital to face La Liga leaders Real Madrid in the first El Clasico of the campaign at the Santiago Bernabéu on Sunday afternoon.
Barça come into this one still dealing with a major injury crisis as their starting goalkeeper, two key attacking starters and three other very important squad pieces are missing, and to add insult to injury they also won’t have Hansi Flick on the sideline due to a ban for his red card last week.
There is absolutely no shame in being realistic and admitting that Barça won’t be favorites on Sunday. Real Madrid are healthier, their defense is in much better shape, and the attack is starting to show more promise as Xabi Alonso’s philosophy gets more and more integrated with the squad.
But Los Blancos have rarely been tested by top opposition this season, and their only loss so far was decisive and alarming as they were destroyed by city rivals Atlético Madrid at the Metropolitano. The other two games against higher-level opponents came at home against Villarreal in the league and Juventus in the Champions League, and there were quite a few scares at the back and several signs that this is still a work in progress and Madrid can be caught out by great teams.
Barça are undoubtedly a great team, but they haven’t quite played like it this season. Even the win against Olympiacos was more impressive due to the scoreline than the actual performance, though there were some good signs defensively: the press was more effective, the high line wasn’t as aggressive with defenders having more freedom to run back and anticipate long balls instead of trying to keep an offside trap at all costs, and the chances allowed were mostly due to poor individual errors on the ball instead of the usual runs in behind the high line that we’ve seen so many times this season.
But there’s a massive difference between defending Olympiacos’ attackers and a Real Madrid offense that features an inspired Kylian Mbappe, an Arda Güler who’s enjoying his increased role this season, (Lionel Messi’s number one fan) Franco Mastantuono who’s shown glimpses of real quality, and a duo in Vinicius Junior and Jude Bellingham that started very slow this season but are starting to round into form at the right time.
Madrid like to control games with possession now which is a big contrast to last season under Carlo Ancelotti, and their attack overall feels more threatening and structured rather than dependant on random bits of individual brilliance from their best players.
Their defense looks pretty solid too, and the battle of Álvaro Carreras against Lamine Yamal, one in which Carreras enjoyed quite a bit of success as a Benfica player in their Champions League meetings last season, figures to be crucial for both team’s chances of getting a victory.
But the biggest battle of the game, and the one that’ll actually decide the winner, is Mbappe against Barça’s high line: the Frenchman was infamously embarrassed by the Blaugrana offside trap in the first Clasico of last season but started to figure things out and scored a hat-trick in Montjuïc in the fourth and final meeting between the two teams in 2024-25, and he’ll certainly have many opportunities to run in behind the Catalans’ high line again. If he times his runs right, and you’d have to bet on him doing so given his form, things could get ugly fast for Barça.
Hansi Flick won’t be on the sideline but he’ll still be responsible for the plan for the match, and it’ll be fascinating to watch if the coach is willing to alter his defensive strategy to cope with Mbappe’s threat. History says that probably won’t happen, so Barça fans have to be prepared for quite a few heart attacks on Sunday.
There is no bigger game than this one, and Madrid will be hungrier than ever for revenge after four big losses last season. Barça are not the favorites, they’re injured and without their coach, and they have a wonderful opportunity to show that they are so resilient, so together, so mentally tough, that they can go into El Clasico as decisive underdogs and still find a way to leave as decisive winners.
Let’s dance.
POSSIBLE LINEUPS
Barcelona (4-2-3-1): Szczesny; Kounde, Balde; De Jong, Pedri; Yamal, Fermín, Rashford; Ferran
Real Madrid (4-3-3): Courtois; Valverde, Militão, Huijsen, Carreras; Güler, Tchouameni, Bellingham; Mastantuono, Mbappe, Vinicius
PREDICTION
El Clasico was a lot of fun last season. Four extremely entertaining games, one epic Cup Final, and four decisive Barça victories. But this is a new season, a new Madrid team, and a Barça side struggling with injuries and their defense. So I don’t think this one will be a lot of fun: 4-2 Madrid.
