Real Madrid and FC Barcelona are set to lock horns in a pre-season friendly on Saturday which will be played at MetLife Stadium in the United States.
Barcelona started their pre-season campaign with a win against Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City while Los Blancos lost to AC Milan 1-0. This will be the second pre-season match for both sides.
Madrid’s head coach Carlo Ancelotti won La Liga and the Champions League last season while this will be the first season of Hansi Flick as Barcelona’s manager.
Ancelotti handed Endrick his Madrid debut during the match against AC Milan and the Brazilian had a few good moments. Other than Endrick, the likes of Arda Guler, Brahim Diaz, Luka Modric and Dani Ceballos were on the pitch for the better part of the match.
With the return of Vinicius Junior and Rodrygo Goes, there might be a change or two in Madrid’s lineup with the latter likely to be included in the playing XI as the former has just completed one training session so far.
New signing Kylian Mbappe, Jude Bellingham and Dani Carvajal are still enjoying their holidays after the European Championship (Euro) 2024 campaign and they are likely to join the team later this month.
Predicted Playing XIs
Real Madrid: Courtois, Vazquez, Militao, Rudiger, Fran Garcia, Modric, Guler, Ceballos, Rodrygo, Brahim, Endrick.
FC Barcelona: Ter Stegen, Fort, Lenglet, Iñigo, Balde, Casado, Bernal, Torre, Victor, Hernandez, Lewandowski.
Last season, Madrid and Barcelona played three El Clasico including the Spanish Super Cup final where Los Blancos emerged victorious in all the meetings.
In their first encounter of the season which took place in La Liga, Bellingham scored a brace as the Whites won the match at Barcelona's home ground. Their second meeting was in the Super Cup final in Saudi Arabia and Vinicius scored a first-half hat-trick to guide his side to victory.
The third and final El Clasico of the last season was played at Santiago Bernabeu where Bellingham, once again, increased Barcelona’s misery and scored a last-minute winner to seal the win.
