Barcelona once again stuttered to a draw in the league this past weekend against Real Sociedad. The Catalan giants lead the La Liga table but are level on points with Wednesday’s opponents, arch-rivals Real Madrid. The two giants of Europe will face off at the Nou Camp for the first time this season.
The Catalan side have won each one of their seven home league games in the season thus far, scoring a whopping 30 goals in the process. The good form shown by Barcelona in their backyard probably gives them the slight edge going into the fixture.
Let’s take a look at the possible Barcelona lineup for the game against Real Madrid.
Team News
Barcelona manager Ernesto Valverde has a strong squad to choose from, with the only two key players unavailable being winger Ousmane Dembele and midfielder Arthur.
Marc-André ter Stegen had a tough game against Real Sociedad as one of his errors led to Sociedad scoring a goal. But, he will have to put that poor performance behind him.
Clément Lenglet and Gerard Pique should start in central defence in El Clasico, but we are still not sure who will take the two full-back roles.
Jordi Alba returned to the Barca team following a layoff due to injury, in the game against Sociedad.
He didn’t last the whole game though, as he was replaced by Nelson Semedo, who was also coming back from injury.
Alba could drop to the bench as Valverde may not want to risk playing him so soon after his recent return, and play Semedo at left-back, and Sergi Roberto at right-back in the Barcelona lineup.
Sergio Busquets and Frenkie de Jong should start in midfield, while one of Ivan Rakitic or Arturo Vidal could play as the third midfielder in the Barcelona lineup.
The absence of Arthur in the middle of the park has hurt Barca as Rakitic has been in poor form. Valverde could maybe use Vidal in this game for his energy and work-rate in midfield.
We will most likely see an unchanged front three of Antoine Griezmann, Luis Suarez and Lionel Messi for the game against Real Madrid. Griezmann scored against Real Sociedad, while Messi and Suarez have scored heavily recently as well.
BARCELONA LINEUP
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