What’s the Spanish for “three-peat”? Real Madrid are hoping they can stop a third straight LaLiga title from going to bitter rivals Barcelona, who they meet in the season’s first Clásico on Sunday (watch live on ABC and ESPN+ at 4 p.m. ET).
Barça are very much the team to beat in Spain again this season as they bid to become the first side to win three titles in a row since Pep Guardiola’s legendary side achieved the feat between 2008 and 2011. With star players like Lamine Yamal, Raphinha and Rodri, they will be hard to stop.
Madrid’s run of two seasons without a major trophy led them to break the glass and push the button marked “José Mourinho,” bringing their combative former coach back to the club 13 years after he was fired. They will be without the suspended Vinícius Júnior for their trip to Camp Nou but, with Kylian Mbappé and Jude Bellingham in attack and Mourinho pulling the strings, they can’t be discounted.
The results of matches between Barcelona and Real Madrid always have a huge effect on deciding who is crowned champions of Spain at the end of the season, even at this stage of the campaign.
ESPN’s Alex Kirkland and Sam Marsden run through the all-time head-to-head between the two teams, their current form, the latest team news and key clashes ahead of the 265th edition of El Clásico.
Go to: All-time head-to-head | What happened last season? | Pre-Clásico form | Coaches | Team news | Key clashes | Combined XI | Predictions | Odds
Barcelona vs. Real Madrid all-time head-to-head
Barcelona and Real Madrid could hardly be more evenly matched, with both clubs having won 106 of their 264 competitive Clásicos. There have been spells when one side has dominated the other, but across more than a century of rivalry, neither has managed to pull decisively clear.
The balance of power had been shifting toward Madrid, but Flick’s arrival at Barcelona two years ago has turned the tide. Barça have won six of the seven Clásicos under the former Bayern Munich boss, and they drew level in the all-time head-to-head record last time out.
Can Mourinho halt that momentum? His record against Barça during his first spell at Madrid was mixed — two wins, four draws and five defeats — but he helped bring Pep Guardiola’s dominant era to an end. He will hope to do the same to Flick. — Marsden
What happened in last season’s Clásicos?
How are Barcelona and Real Madrid doing this season?
Barcelona
Ignoring Tuesday’s defeat to Paris Saint-Germain, Barça are doing extremely well this season. They kicked off the campaign with 11 straight wins, steamrolling opponents week after week with an average of over four goals per match. Yamal has effectively been averaging a goal and an assist in every game, Raphinha has been converted into one of the best strikers in the world and Rodri has slotted effortlessly into midfield alongside Pedri.
However, this week had long been marked in the calendar as the real test to gauge just how good this Barça team is. Could they continue that form against PSG and Madrid, or was it just a case of a favorable fixture list? The jury is still out. They were good in patches against the European champions, but ultimately lost 4-2 and showed familiar vulnerabilities defensively. It slightly alters the mood ahead of the Clásico, but it does not massively change the foundations which have been laid in the first two months of the season. — Marsden
Real Madrid
Real Madrid are still a work in progress. There’ve been some tentative signs of improvement after two years of failure; but some of the same, worrying signs of weakness remain. In LaLiga, Madrid have won seven games, but they’ve already lost two — 1-0 at Real Betis, and 2-1 at Atlético Madrid — and that’s left them six points behind note-perfect Barcelona in the table as they head to Catalonia (and also behind Atlético).
There were reasons for optimism in Sunday’s 4-1 win over Sevilla, with Arda Güler running the midfield, Mbappé finding his shooting boots, and Yan Diomande looking increasingly comfortable, while Jude Bellingham is having an outstanding season. Vinícius Júnior is in the middle of a four-game ban after his red card against Villarreal, but perhaps that’s a blessing in disguise, given his poor form, with just one goal all season. — Kirkland
Who’s coaching in El Clásico?
Hansi Flick
Flick has been a revelation at Barcelona since arriving in 2024. The German coach has led them to back-to-back LaLiga titles, as well as two Spanish Supercopas and one Copa del Rey. They have won those trophies playing an attacking brand of football with a team full of youngsters. As a result, following a lean period pre-Flick, they are widely recognized as one of the best teams in Europe again.
The big challenge facing Flick now is to help Barça win a first Champions League trophy since 2015. He feels the team is in a much better place this season to do that than last year, recognizing his second campaign was “difficult” this week. Defeat to PSG showed they still have work to do, but perhaps the looming Clásico was one reason for that. Flick admitted his team selection, including resting Rodri, was made with Madrid in mind. — Marsden
José Mourinho
Back after 13 years away, Mourinho has wasted no time in running through his managerial playbook. Forget the talk that he’s calmed with age; four months in, we’ve already had the “Special One” bring a printout into a postmatch news conference to (with some justification) highlight refereeing mistakes, skip another news conference entirely, and drop plenty of hints at anti-Madrid conspiracies from the league, federation and the media.
“I thought I’d find a different league to the one I left [in 2013], and people told me no,” he said in September. “If ‘they’ leave us in peace, and let us compete on an even playing field, there’s a long way left.”
As with any coach at the Bernabéu, Mourinho’s success will depend on the trophies. But he starts from a position of strength, with a degree of authority not enjoyed by many of his predecessors. — Kirkland
Barcelona and Real Madrid team news
Clásico key clashes
Lamine Yamal vs. Marc Cucurella: The Spain teammates become rivals this weekend, although not for the first time. They faced each other last season when Cucurella was at Chelsea, with the Premier League side running out 3-0 winners. Before the game, left back Cucurella joked he was making teammate Estêvão wear shin pads in training so he could practice kicking him. During the game, he kept Yamal relatively quiet, with Chelsea goalkeeper Robert Sánchez saying Cucurella had Yamal “in his pocket.”
We have seen how these personal battles motivate Yamal, from France midfielder Adrien Rabiot‘s “He needs to do more” comments at Euro 2024 through to Galatasaray‘s Mario Lemina‘s “Who is Yamal?” joke last week. It sets the stage for a fascinating battle between two players who won the FIFA World Cup together three months ago. — Marsden
Arda Güler vs. Rodri: Talking to Real Madrid fans lately, there’s been one common theme: Güler needs to play every week. Without him, Madrid’s midfield lacks a tempo-setting, ball-playing fulcrum; in other words, just the kind of player Rodri would have been if they’d signed him, rather than letting him escape to Camp Nou in the summer.
Güler isn’t exactly like Rodri, but he’s the closest thing Madrid have got; neither Aurélien Tchouaméni nor Federico Valverde are good enough on the ball. Güler was benched at AS Roma last week, and the team suffered for an hour, 3-1 down before he was introduced and promptly set up all three goals in a 4-3 comeback. He returned to the team against Sevilla on Sunday, and starred again.
Rodri remains the benchmark for midfield excellence. He was outstanding for Spain’s World Cup winners, and has slotted into Barcelona’s midfield with minimal fuss, dispelling any doubts about his ability to successfully dovetail with Pedri. On Sunday, we’ll get the chance to see the veteran many of us thought Madrid needed to sign, go up against the youngster they’re relying on instead. — Kirkland
Barcelona and Real Madrid combined XI
The front six was easy. The midfield and attack more or less picks itself. There are players knocking on the door, like Güler and Fermín López, but, let’s be honest, the players ahead of them are so good at what they do.
Elsewhere was harder. Barcelona goalkeeper Joan García is incredible, but Thibaut Courtois still edges him out. As for the defense, neither team is defending particularly well. Federico Valverde has been shoe-horned in at right-back, as Mourinho has done with him at Madrid, because none of the more recognized right backs — Trent Alexander-Arnold, Denzel Dumfries, Jules Koundé — are performing, while Eric García is injured. Xavi Espart was good there for Barça in midweek, but has predominantly played on the left.
Cucurella was a simpler pick at left back, as was Pau Cubarsí in the middle, but picking a partner for him was tough. Dean Huijsen and Ibrahima Konaté start for Madrid right now, but both have had dodgy moments. Antonio Rüdiger is in the mix, too, and Éder Militão is just coming back from another lengthy injury. Therefore, Cubarsí’s Barça teammate Gerard Martín gets the nod. Given the gulf between the teams this season, it feels right that there is a greater Barça presence overall — and Martín’s rise from third division fullback into a starting center back for Barça is a great story.
GK: Thibaut Courtois
DF: Federico Valverde, Pau Cubarsí, Gerard Martín, Marc Cucurella
MF: Rodri, Pedri
FW: Lamine Yamal, Jude Bellingham, Raphinha
ST: Kylian Mbappé
Clásico match predictions
Barcelona 3-1 Real Madrid: We saw that Barça are not the finished article in Paris, but that doesn’t detract from everything they have done so far this season. With Rodri and Pedri, they should control the game, and they have the firepower to convert the chances they create. Madrid have match winners, but they are yet to find structural stability under Mourinho. Barça have a clear way of playing and it’s hard to imagine them being stopped this weekend. — Marsden
Barcelona 4-2 Real Madrid: Despite some improvements, I still find this Real Madrid team deeply unconvincing. Against Barcelona, they’ll have little of the ball, and therefore they’ll be relying on being defensively solid and ruthlessly clinical on the counterattack. The second part of that equation shouldn’t be an issue — Mbappé, Diomande and Bellingham can see to that — but I’m doubtful about their ability to deliver the first. Thibaut Courtois will need to be at his habitual best. — Kirkland
Odds for Barcelona vs. Real Madrid
Barcelona: -155
Real Madrid: +290
Draw: +450
Odds via DraftKings, correct at time of publication
