{"id":94974,"date":"2025-10-24T07:47:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T07:47:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/94974\/"},"modified":"2025-10-24T07:47:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T07:47:07","slug":"real-madrid-vs-barcelona-match-preview-head-to-head-team-news-key-players","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/94974\/","title":{"rendered":"Real Madrid vs Barcelona: Match preview, head-to-head, team news, key players"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Real Madrid host rivals Barcelona in the La Liga at Estadio Santiago Bernabeu on Sunday afternoon in the biggest fixture across the top five leagues in Europe.<\/p>\n<p>Real Madrid secured a hard-fought victory at Getafe in their last league fixture, <a href=\"https:\/\/footballtoday.com\/2025\/10\/19\/mbappe-matches-cristiano-ronaldo-feat-as-real-madrid-return-to-top-of-la-liga\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:reclaiming top spot;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">reclaiming top spot<\/a> from Barcelona.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Barcelona had earlier leapfrogged them with a <a href=\"https:\/\/footballtoday.com\/2025\/10\/18\/barcelona-regain-la-liga-top-spot-thanks-to-araujos-dramatic-laate-winner\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:last-gasp win;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">last-gasp win<\/a> against Girona.<\/p>\n<p>Match preview<\/p>\n<p>Madrid have had a good start to the season under manager Xabi Alonso, suffering just one defeat across all competitions.<\/p>\n<p>They have the highest expected goals (xG) in the Spanish top-flight, but have scored four fewer goals than Barcelona, the division\u2019s top scorers.<\/p>\n<p>However, they have been defensively vulnerable, conceding nine goals in nine games, with injuries preventing Alonso from finding his best back four.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Similarly, Barcelona have their defensive frailties, conceding one more goal than Madrid.<\/p>\n<p>Opposition teams now find it easier to exploit manager Hansi Flick\u2019s high line, and the departure of defender Inigo Martinez has further weakened Barcelona\u2019s backline.<\/p>\n<p>With the two teams\u2019 defensive frailties, this fixture should be exciting.<\/p>\n<p>Head-to-head<\/p>\n<p>Madrid have won the El Clasico 106 times, while Barcelona have triumphed on 104 occasions and there have been 51 draws between them.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Team news<\/p>\n<p>Real Madrid are set to welcome back <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/GuillermoRai_\/status\/1981298761927151932?t=r1_xedE6ErPdrL87yIF8RQ&amp;s=19\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Dani Carvajal, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Dean Huijsen and Dani Ceballos;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Dani Carvajal, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Dean Huijsen and Dani Ceballos <\/a> but David Alaba, Antonio Rudiger and Ferland Mendy are ruled out.<\/p>\n<p>Raphinha is back for Barcelona, but goalkeepers Andre Ter Stegen and Joan Garcia, as well as Robert Lewandowski, Gavi, and Dani Olmo, remain ruled out.<\/p>\n<p>Key playersReal Madrid<\/p>\n<p>Kylian Mbappe: The French forward is La Liga\u2019s most in-form forward, scoring 10 goals in nine matches.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Vinicius Junior: The Brazilian has recovered from his slow start, providing six goal involvements in his last five league games.<\/p>\n<p>Barcelona<\/p>\n<p>Lamine Yamal: The young Spanish forward has five goal contributions in seven games against Madrid.<\/p>\n<p>Pedri: The 22-year-old has been the league\u2019s best central midfielder since the start of last season.<\/p>\n<p>Stats from fbref.com, transfermarkt.com &amp; sofascore.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Real Madrid host rivals Barcelona in the La Liga at Estadio Santiago Bernabeu on Sunday afternoon in the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":94975,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[63639,1998,19690,63637,16265,63641,23407,63636,63640,30632,63642,85,63638,46,22061,19684,16261,16259,22070,16263,4029,16252,105,19692,41909,23406],"class_list":["post-94974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-antonio-rudiger","tag-barcelona","tag-dani-carvajal","tag-dani-ceballos","tag-dani-olmo","tag-david-alaba","tag-dean-huijsen","tag-estadio-santiago-bernabeu","tag-ferland-mendy","tag-gavi","tag-girona","tag-il","tag-inigo-martinez","tag-israel","tag-joan-garcia","tag-kylian-mbappe","tag-la-liga","tag-lamine-yamal","tag-pedri","tag-raphinha","tag-real-madrid","tag-robert-lewandowski","tag-sports","tag-trent-alexander-arnold","tag-vinicius-junior","tag-xabi-alonso"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94974"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94974\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}