Real Madrid and Barcelona’s predicted line-ups for El Clasico

Clasico Sunday has arrived, with Real Madrid to host Barcelona at the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu on Sunday night. This is always a huge game and it should be especially interesting this time around given the couple of question marks in the Real Madrid line-up and given how much the Barcelona team has changed in recent weeks under Xavi.

Here comes a look at the likely starting line-ups for both sides for this Sunday’s game, starting with the LaLiga Santander leaders.

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Real Madrid’s probable starting line-up for El Clasico

Real Madrid are missing starting left-back Ferland Mendy and starting striker Karim Benzema. Replacing the French defender shouldn’t be too big an issue, as Nacho can play there and there is confidence that he can do a good job, after he did so when filling in for the suspended full-back in the PSG second leg. But, there are various different ways Real Madrid could replace Benzema in El Clasico, so that spot is harder to predict.

The Real Madrid predicted starting XI vs Barcelona: Thibaut Courtois; Dani Carvajal, Éder Militão, David Alaba, Nacho; Luka Modrić, Casemiro, Toni Kroos; Rodrygo, Marco Asensio, Vinícius.

Barcelona’s probable starting line-up for El Clasico

Xavi doesn’t have any real injury concerns when it comes to his starters, other than the long-term-injured Ansu Fati. He is without Sergiño Dest, which rules out any possibility of the USMNT man starting ahead of Dani Alves, leaving his only other main selection decisions in central defence and on the right wing, where he’ll have to decide between Ousmane Dembélé or Adama Traoré. Catalan media expect the former to get that start.

The Barcelona predicted starting XI vs Real Madrid: Marc-André ter Stegen; Dani Alves, Ronald Araújo, Gerard Piqué, Jordi Alba; Frenkie de Jong, Sergio Busquets, Pedri; Ousmane Dembélé, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Ferran Torres.