Barcelona and Real Madrid face off for the fourth time this season

Barcelona and Real Madrid face off for the fourth time this season on Sunday, in a game that may determine the destiny of the title race in La Liga.

A win for Barcelona would all but seal the league for the Catalans, as they’d then lead their great rivals by seven points with only three games to play. Barca have certainly been the more impressive of the two teams this term, but they head into this match after a gruelling fortnight.

Having edged out Real Madrid in the Copa del Rey final in extra time only two weekends ago, they went the distance again in midweek, losing 4-3 on the night, and 7-6 on aggregate against Inter who were backed to progress on MFT.

Los Blancos will be hoping to take advantage of any fatigue in the home camp here. Carlo Ancelotti’s men have had a full week to prepare for this game, following a 3-2 victory over Celta Vigo. That was their seventh win in eight league games, but some significant defensive cracks have been evident during that run which Barca will be looking to exploit.

Hansi Flick has enjoyed a triple dose of success in El Clasico since taking over from Xavi. He led Barcelona to a 4-0 league win at the Bernabeu back in October. Barca have also tasted Supercopa and Copa del Rey final victories over their great rivals since then, with 5-2 and 3-2 margins of victory.

This is a game that doesn’t really need any subplots, but it has one with Robert Lewandowski currently only one goal ahead of Kylian Mbappe in the race for the prestigious Pichichi Trophy. The Barca frontman has been sidelined in recent weeks, but he returned from injury off the bench at San Siro on Tuesday, and could start this game.

Jules Kounde is the main absentee for Barcelona, with Eric Garcia set to continue at right-back. Alejandro Balde is training again and could feature on Sunday, but Gerard Martin may still start at left-back.

As for the visitors, little has changed on the selection front since last weekend, with Arda Guler likely to keep his place ahead of Rodrygo. David Alaba, Ferland Mendy, Dani Carvajal, Eder Militao, Eduardo Camavinga and Antonio Rudiger are out injured.

Barcelona: Szczesny, Martin, Martinez, Cubarsi, E. Garcia, De Jong, Pedri, Raphinha, Olmo, Yamal, Lewandowski.

Real Madrid: Courtois, F. Garcia, Asencio, Tchouameni, Vazquez, Ceballos, Valverde, Bellingham, Guler, Vinicius, Mbappe.