The eyes of football fans will turn to the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium tomorrow, to watch one of the most important European matches, as Real Madrid meets its guest Barcelona in the “El Clásico” match in the 11th round of the Spanish League.
Barcelona occupies the top of the table with 27 points, three points ahead of Real Madrid, which is in second place, which confirms that the match will witness strong competition between the two teams for the top of the table.
The two teams have a long history of intense rivalry between them, as they have met in 257 official matches, and Real Madrid excels in these confrontations by winning 105 matches, while Barcelona won 100 and tied in 52 matches.
Real Madrid, the home team, enters the match feeling ecstatic, after overturning a deficit against German club Borussia Dortmund with two clean goals to win 5-2, the day before yesterday, in the Champions League.
But this victory cost Real Madrid the loss of the efforts of Thibaut Courtois, the goalkeeper, who was injured in his left leg, joining the list of those absent from the El Clásico match, which also includes Dani Carvajal and David Alaba.
There are also doubts about the participation of Rodrigo, who also suffered a knee ligament injury in the Dortmund match, and Ibrahima Diaz, who suffers from a thigh injury.
On the other hand, Barcelona aims to continue its good start to the season under the leadership of coach Hansi Flick, who was able to lead the team to achieve 11 victories and lose only two matches in the Spanish League and the Champions League.
Flick knows the difficulty of the task that awaits him against Real Madrid, but he is counting on the high morale of his players, after the victory over Bayern Munich, 4-1, the day before yesterday, in the Champions League, in addition to the victory over Sevilla, 5-1, last Sunday.
Flick is counting on the brilliance of his Polish striker, Robert Lewandowski, who is currently brilliant, and who has scored three goals in the last two matches, in addition to the return of midfielder Javi and the brilliant Lamine Yamal.
Flick is missing the efforts of goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen, whose season ended due to injury, Andres Christensen and Ronald Araujo.
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