Key events
This Clasico win in October put Madrid five points clear.
The trophy will be presented to Barcelona tonight if they manage to put Real Madrid away.
Frenkie de Jong is on the Barcelona bench, having spoken to the Guardian last weekend.
De Jong faced regular rumours about a potential exit, with one leak claiming to detail his salary, though he says the figures were inaccurate. “The press can really influence how people see you; that’s something I especially noticed during that period. Back then, it was all about my contract, with all sorts of figures about what I was supposedly earning, while that was not true. But then you notice they [the outside world] see you differently from that point; they judge you differently … It starts to get into people’s heads.”
Last time out for both teams.
Reports from Barcelona and some social media footage of Real Madrid’s bus being attacked, and a window smashed.
The teams
Barcelona (4-2-3-1): J. Garcia; E. Garcia, Cubarsi, Gerard Martin, Cancelo; Gavi, Pedri; Ferran Torres, Olmo, Lopez; Rashford. Subs: Szczesny, Aller, Balde, Araujo, Lewandowski, Raphinha, Casado, Roony, De Jong, Bernal, Kounde, Espart.
Real Madrid (4-2-3-1): Courtois; Alexander-Arnold, Rudiger Huijsen, Fran Garcia; Camavinga, Tchouameni; Gonzalo Garcia, Bellingham, Diaz; Vinicius Junior. Subs: Lunin, Sergio Mestre, Alaba, Asencio, Carreras, Mastantuono, Cestero, Jiminez, Palacios, Thiago.
Sid Lowe has previewed a crucial Clasico.
This is a crisis that is cultural. When Vinícius Júnior stormed off having been substituted towards the end of the clásico in the autumn, threatening to walk straight out of the team, it brought the disconnect between him and Xabi Alonso into the open and in doing so made it irretrievable. He was not entirely alone in feeling that: Valverde too had made his discontent public. Nor, though, was the feeling unanimous. “It’s not the manager’s fault,” Tchouaméni had insisted, blame instead lying inside the dressing room, sides starting to be taken.
About that quiet week, it’s got to the stage where Jose Mourinho, just the man to calm things down, is in line for a return.
Preamble
Been a quiet week at Real Madrid? Well, even by the standards of the soap opera that is the world football’s equivalent of the Borgias, it’s been chaotic. On Thursday a fight with Aurélien Tchouaméni at Valdebebas left Fede Valverde bleeding and with what a club communique described as “craniofacial trauma”. Kylian Mbappe is missing, too, his popularity rating down at absolute zero. What’s worse is that Barcelona can clinch a second successive Liga title with a draw.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/football/live/2026/may/10/barcelona-v-real-madrid-la-liga-title-on-the-line-in-clasico-live
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