The El-Classico between Real Madrid and Barcelona is set to take place on the 16th of October at 16:15 CET at Santiago Bernabeu, The La Liga official has announced. The two heavy-weights in the world of Club football would go head to head for the 2023 La Liga title.
How Real Madrid had been doing and what to expect from them?
Real Madrid has seen a perfect start to their season winning all their opening 6 games and collecting all the crucial points sitting at the top of the table with 18 points. Real Madrid will be looking to defend their title against much improved Barcelona this season. There is no doubt that this year's title challenger of Madrid would be Barcelona, given their transfer spree this summer.
Real Madrid still seems to have the best teams even though they had a quiet summer than their rivals their main target Kylian Mbappe renewed with PSG instead of Joining Real Madrid something which was unaccepted given the calibre of Real Madrid and the interest from both sides.
However, Real Madrid did secure getting hands on their other long-term target Arlumein Tchoumeni. Real Madrid bought Tchoumeni for $100 Million. Given the performance, the price seems to be worth every penny, he has been crucial in that CDM position for Real Madrid after the departure of Casemiro.
Talking about Tchoumeni, the youngsters of Real Madrid have been the major driving force for this season as Players like Valverde, Tchoumeni, Vinicius, and Rodrigo have stepped up their game to a great extent, especially Valverde, the Uruguayan has been an absolute monster in Midfield and attack for Real Madrid this season, scoring in bangers, making runs, tackling you name it all, Valverde might be the player to make a real difference in the El-Classico apart from Benzema, A player to keep an eye on.
Real Madrid knows Barcelona is stronger this year compared to last year, Some sources have even said Real Madrid is targeting a point tally of a total of 90 points to beat Barcelona.
The champions seem to be in perfect condition to meet the target, given their performances in the last couple of games they had overcome difficult games with strong performances against Atletico, and Celtic in the Champions League that too without Karim Benzema.
The Frenchman has been injured since the match against the Celtics but will be looking to join soon, it is expected for Karim to join till El-Classico. It is hard to write off this Real Madrid even without Benzema, the world saw what Real Madrid's youngsters are capable off when it comes to the bigger stages. Real Madrid endured a 0-4 defeat the previous season in Bernabeu, The Champions will surely be looking toward making it up with Barcelona.
How has Barcelona been doing, What can we expect from them?
Barcelona, on the other hand, too have started the season with ambition, After 6 games played Barcelona are 2nd in the la Liga title just below Real Madrid with 16 points as Barcelona suffered a draw in their first game of the season.
Barcelona will be looking to put their last season's miseries behind, losing out on all the major titles, This season Xavi has a host of special players to choose from. Laporte and his team have done everything possible to give Xavi the squad depth he wanted.
Barcelona this summer has gone on a spending spree, with the board spending an insane amount of cash for top players during the summer transfer window, bringing in the likes of Robert Lewandowski for around $70 Million, Rafinha for $59 Million, Frank Kessie(free), Kounde for $50 Million, Christensen (free), Hector Bellerin etc, defensive woes last season had cost Barcelona a lot during the previous season, defenders like Clement Lenglet, Samuel Umtiti had been ineffective for the major games.
By far this Year's Barcelona's best player has been Robert Lewandowski, the Polish striker from Bayern Munich has already scored 8 goals in 6 games. A direct rival to Real Madrid's striker Karim Benzema this season.
Barcelona also has been successful in securing the future of Ousmane Dembele with the club, the Frenchman was being seen as a prime replacement for Neymar, for his injuries have held him back, but he was back to his best during the later half of the 2021 season after having a short scuffle with Barcelona board Dembele is again ready to reach his full potential in Barcelona.
Barcelona is going strong this season with them winning their previous five matches, compared to this they were 8th last season after 6 games. Xavi's main ambition would be to lift the treble again with Barcelona this time as a coach. Xavi's building his team with young players reflects that Barca DNA, apart from young Xavi has a variety of players young and veteran this season to fulfil the title ambition.
Barcelona are a different team when they face Real Madrid, the history between the two clubs has made the fixture very controversial between two for a very long time. It always seems Barcelona's first big target in La Liga is beating Real Madrid and winning the title the second. Many veterans have spoken about the fixture as being the highest-intensity game with lots of foul play between the two teams.
With this year's El-Classico on the horizon, it will be interesting to watch these two heavyweights play out their title defence in a very entertaining match.
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