El Classico is here again as we bring you all you need to know ahead of the Real Madrid vs Barcelona match slated for Sunday afternoon at Santiago Bernabeu.

Real Madrid are set to welcome their long-time bitter rivals FC Barcelona in one of the most anticipated matches in football history, the El Classico.

Barcelona are currently sitting top of the La Liga table with 22 points and 19 goal difference. They are closely followed by rivals Liverpool with the same points. Both teams have won 7 and drew 1 of their 8 La Liga matches this season and will therefore lock horns in search of supremacy on Sunday.

Read also: Liverpool vs Man City: Team news, H2h, lineup and Prediction

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Match preview

Real Madrid finished 13 points ahead of Barcelona at the top of the La Liga table last season, proving to be considerably powerful for the Catalan giants and the other teams in the Spanish La Liga. However, it appears like this season’s title challenge will be much tighter than usual.  

The fact that Carlo Ancelotti’s team has won 7 and drawn 1 of their 8 league games this season which was enough to fetch them 22 points is a sign of the quality that will be necessary to finish first in 2022–23. However, the point is not sufficient to overtake the Catalans who have maintained the same tally with more goal difference and currently occupy the first spot on the LaLiga table.

Real Madrid’s lone loss came against Osasuna at Madrid on October 2. They succeeded in returning to winning ways last week when they defeated Getafe 1-0 and then drew 1-1 with Shakhtar Donetsk in their Champions League encounter on Tuesday night.

However, despite picking a point against Shakhtar Donetsk, they succeeded to qualify for the knockout stage of the Champions with two group-stage games left. Ancelotti admitted that he was displeased with his team’s performance in the European tournament after the stalemate on Tuesday.

Before the end of October, Real Madrid will play five matches which include matches against RB Leipzig in the Champions League and four other La Liga games against Barcelona, Sevilla, Elche, and Girona in the Spanish League.

Los Blancos have defeated Barcelona in four of their previous five league meetings, although they were defeated 4-0 by their fierce rivals in a comparable game at the Bernabeu last year.

Real Madrid have done well to easily advance to the Champions League knockout stage, but Barcelona will have to work hard to prevent missing the last 16 for the second successive season.

The Catalan team played a 3-3 draw with Italian giants Inter Milan which dropped them to the third position in Group C, as it stands, they are three points behind Inter who sit in the second spot, the chance of qualification for the Catalans is way to slim as Inter just need to defeat Viktoria Plzen at home the following week to guarantee their place in the knockout stage of the competition.

Barcelona have struggled so far in the European competition, but their league performance remains unblemished since their uninspiring goalless draw with Rayo Vallecano to start the 2022–23 season.

Despite starting the La Liga campaign with a draw against Rayo Vallecano, the Catalans went ahead to win the last seven matches scoring 20 goals and conceding just one. The record was good enough to place them on the top of the La Liga table. 

Barcelona have not won the La Liga title since the 2018–19 season. Peradventurely, if they failed to secure their place in the Champions League’s knockout rounds, they may decide to focus entirely on the Spanish league.

This weekend won’t determine who wins the league, but a win for either team would boost morale at a pretty early point in the season.

Real Madrid La Liga form:

• W
• W
• W
• W
• D
• W

Real Madrid form (all competitions):

• W
• W
• D
• W
• W
• D

Barcelona La Liga form:

• W
• W
• W
• W
• W
• W

Barcelona form (all competitions):

• L
• W
• W
• L
• W
• D

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Team News

Owing to hamstring problems, Dani Ceballos will undoubtedly be absent from Real Madrid once more, while Thibaut Courtois may have been unable to recover from a back ailment and will also miss the El Clasico.

Andriy Lunin is therefore guaranteed to remain in goal, and Antonio Rudiger is also anticipated to remain healthy after sustaining a serious head injury while scoring his team’s equalizer against Shakhtar Donetsk in the Champions League.

Real Madrid won’t be at maximum capacity due to Courtois’ probable unavailability, but there shouldn’t be any shocks among the 10 players on the pitch, with Federico Valverde anticipated to start on the right wing of the top three attacking line.

The first-choice midfielder Luka Modric, Aurelien Tchouameni, and Toni Kroos are expected to start for Real Madrid, with Eder Militao replacing Rudiger in the defense.

Jules Kounde is anticipated to make a speedy recovery from his injury. will hold the central defense with Eric Garcia and take the place of Gerard Pique for the Catalan giants in the central defense.

There are still injuries keeping Memphis Depay, Hector Bellerin, Ronald Araujo, and Andreas Christensen from playing, but Xavi’s team has no new concerns over their readiness for the game.

Alejandro Balde may start at left-back, and Ansu Fati may start in place of Raphinha in the attacking line alongside Ousmane Dembele and Robert Lewandowski.

Although Frenkie de Jong could replace Sergio Busquets in the heart of the midfield, it appears more likely that the young players Gavi and Pedri will once again join Busquets in a midfield three.

Real Madrid Predicted Lineup:

• Lunin
• Carvajal
• Militao
• Alaba
• Mendy
• Modric
• Tchouameni
• Kroos
• Valverde
• Benzema
• Vinicius

Barcelona Predicted Lineup:

• Ter Stegen
• Roberto
• Kounde
• E Garcia
• Balde
• Gavi
• Busquets
• Pedri
• Dembele
• Lewandowski
• Fati

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Real Madrid vs Barcelona Prediction

El Classico as it is formally known is one of the biggest fixtures in football history and can be very difficult to predict. However, we have quite a number of options to pick from when staking your money on a bet.

Though both teams have not lost any match this season, there is a possibility that the match will end in a stalemate. According to our expert punters, this is quite an easy game to predict.

GG is feasible as well as over 1.5, risk takers can bet on over 2.5 or Real Madrid to win but in the end, it is going to be a cracker to watch.

FT: Real Madrid 2-1 Barcelona

Before the closure of the summer transfer window, Sevilla had declared their interest in Seko Fofana of Lens in a bid to boost their midfield option.

Sevilla have had a rough start to the 2022/23 La Liga season. The Spanish side has managed just a draw out of their three fixtures since the beginning of the new season. The epileptic performance is their worst in 41 years and will be hoping for a bounce back to their winning ways.

According to information gathered by Diario Sport, Sevilla has already made an early bid worth €28m for the Lens midfielder, who has been in fine form since the commencement of the new French Ligue 1 season.

Fofana has made one assist and scored two goals for Lens who started the season on a good note. Currently, Lens were able to secure 10 points out of 12, meaning they have won three and drew one and are yet to lose any game this season.

The Ivory Coast international joined Lens for a minut fee of €8.5m and has had 77 appearances for the Ligue 1 side, netting 14 goals and eight assists.

The 27-year-old midfielder, born in Paris, started his senior football career at Man City, unfortunately, he was not able to feature in the club’s first team. He later joined Udinese where he enjoyed playing time and a great senior career before joining Lens in France.

Read also: Chelsea revealed Aubameyang’s Jersey Number

During his senior career in football, he has had a loan spell at Fulham and Bastia. If the deal is sealed he will be a good acquisition for Sevilla who are in dire need of a scorer and a playmaker.

How Old is Seko Fofana?

Seko Fofana was born on May 7, 2022, in Paris, France. He is currently 27 years Old. The player still have a good number of years to add more accolades to his football career before retirement.

Soon, the player who is in constant search for winning trophies may seek an opportunity elsewhere but as it stands there is no official statement as regards him wanting to leave the Club despite keen interest from big clubs such as Arsenal, Sevilla, etc.

Seko Fofana Stats

Seko Fofana is currently enjoying his senior football career in the French Ligue 1 as he keeps improving on his arrival at Lens from Udinese for a fee of 8.5m pounds. Fofana featured in 30 games during his first season at the club (2020/21), scoring just 2 goals and making 3 assists.

In the 2021/22 season, the Ivorian had 36 appearances in the French Ligue 1 scoring 8 goals and made one assist, a performance quite better than that of the previous campaign.

Amazingly, it seems the new 2022/23 season is going to be his best season at Lens as the midfielder has scored 2 goals and made 2 assists in just four matches. If Fofana can maintain this performance till the end of the season, he might be contending for the Ligue 1 golden boot.

Also, during the 2021/22 season, he featured in the French Cup competition where he played 3 matches, scoring 2 goals and assisting one.

The most impressive part of Fofana’s career is his self-discipline. All through his two-and-a-half spell at Lens, he had only picked 5 yellow cards in all competitions and no red cards.

Will Seko Fofana leave Lens?

As it stands, Seko Fofana is not leaving Lens for now. The Ivory Coast midfielder has not declared his intention of leaving his current club and is currently enjoying his spell at Lens.

With the curtain of the Summer transfer window fully drawn, clubs interested in Seko Fofana can only go and lick their wounds until the next transfer window opens.

Barcelona have confirmed the signing of Bayern Munich forward and Poland captain for €45 million, adding major potency to Xavi’s squad in readiness for the forthcoming season.

The question on the lips of every football fan now will be Robert Lewandowski jersey number at Camp Nuo. FC Barcelona have finally landed their target, according to reports, after a prolonged hunt for Bayern Munich striker Robert Lewandowski, the Catalan giants finalized the transfer process on Friday evening which saw the Polish forward arrive at Camp Nuo for a sum of €45 million.

Poland forward had made it clear that he opted to leave the Allianz Arena, and while the Bayern management did enough posturing to convince the striker not to exit the club this summer, there was never any genuine chance of a reversal from Lewandowski.

Lewandowski Stats at Bayern Munich

After joining Bayern Munich from Dortmund in 2014, Lewandowski enjoyed eight productive seasons in his football career at Bayer winning the Bundesliga top scorer award in seven of those seasons, shattering Gerd Müller’s long-standing single-season league record of 40 goals in 2020-21.

Lewandowski scored 344 goals in 375 games with Bayern, claiming eight Bundesliga titles, three DFB-Pokals, and the UEFA Champions League, as well as a number of individual honours such as Best FIFA Men’s Player (2020, 2021), European Golden Boot (2021, 2022), and a Laureus World Sports Exceptional Achievement Award.

What Jersey number will Lewandowski wear at Barcelona?

Now that Lewandowski has finally signed with Barça, the focus has shifted to which shirt number he will wear at Camp Nou.

The Poland captain has always worn number 9 for both club and country, having received it in his first professional season at Znicz Pruszkow in 2007-08.

He was given the number 8 shirt when he moved to Lech Poznan the next year, and then he was given the number 7 in his debut season at Dortmund before inheriting the number nine from Nelson Valdez.

With Ansu Fati poised to return and Lewandowski unlikely to be spending much time on the bench, it appears probable that Barcelona’s current number nine, Memphis Depay, will follow the time-honored practice of passing up his shirt to the ace striker.

The Available Shirt Numbers at Barcelona

Other alternatives for the prolific forward are limited: the number 11 position is available following Adama Traoré’s return to Wolves after a loan spell, which may appeal to Lewandowski because he wore that number temporarily during his early stages with Poland’s national team. However, that is the only first XI jersey that is currently vacant.

There are three squad numbers available outside the first XI: Shirt number 15 (previously worn by Clément Lenglet), number 16 (vacated by Pedri, who has switched to number 8 after Dani Alves’ second tenure at Camp Nou was cut short), and number 17 shirt, which became vacant following the exit of Luuk de Jong.

New additions Raphinha, Pablo Torre, Franck Kessié, and Andreas Christensen must also be given shirts. In the absence of any further exits, and in accordance with LaLiga’s 1-25 squad numbering rule, the new arrivals will have to settle for what is available. In any case, it will be a big shock if Lewandowski is not presented at Camp Nou wearing a shirt with the number 9 on the back.

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How Barcelona could lineup with Lewandowski

With the former Bayern Munich striker now at the club, Xavi will have a variety of interesting options for positioning his offensive force in the 4-3-3 and 4-2-3-1 formations that he generally uses.

Here, we are going to look at how the Catalan could line up using their new signings alongside the good old wine at Camp Nou.

We’re certain that our variety of offensive alternatives demonstrates both the depth and variety of Barcelona’s lineup at the business end. Former Arsenal star Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has been on fire since his arrival at the club. It is somewhat impossible to keep such an asset on the bench.

However, Robert Lewandowski is also not a bench-warmer as the prolific striker always leave defenders begging for mercies when he comes knocking.

Let’s take a look on how Barcelona could line up with their assets below:

4-3-3 Formation

Lewandowski is the ideal line leader for Xavi’s new 4-3-3, which is primarily his preferred formation. If the Catalan boss should go by the formation, Raphinha will play from the right wing and Ansu Fati (when fit) will play from the left wing. These two wingers are the strongest wide options to support and assist Xavi’s goals. 

However, if Ansu fati is not fit, which often is the case for the young lad, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang or Pedri could replace him on the left wing, alongside Lewandowski and Raphinha.

There is still a lot to enjoy with Memphis Depay moving up and Pedri charging forward on the left, even if you ban those three as well and see Xavi lining up for a cup game or suffering from a catastrophic injury epidemic.
Yes, it does imply that Martin Braithwaite must start, which, as we will admit, is not the best choice. However, Barca would likely cease to exist if they had another elite forward in addition to Lewandowski and  Aubameyang.

4-4-2 Formation

Alternatively, let’s picture a scenario in which Xavi changed to a 4-4-2 foramation with both Lewandowski and Aubameyang playing upfront. its a bang bang partyyyyy!

Although it is just a mere suggestion but I wont be surprise if Barcelona adopt this lineup later in the season when the club is desperately in need of a win or higher goal difference.

Which ever way, Xavi can also pair Lewandowski and Memphis Depay upfront and it will be one hell of an attacking force for any defender to contain.

4-2-3-1 Formation

How about we look at a 4-2-3-1 formation, where we are going to have Robert Lewandowski as the arrow-head, closely supported by Aubameyang/Ferran Torres on the left wing, Memphis in the attacking midfield and Dembele/Raphinha on the right. Amazing isn’t it?

I feel like being a Barcelona fan right now, cos all things being equal, the Catalan giants are going to have a jolly ride this season and of course, Xavi’s problem can only be who to choose and who not to choose as he has abundant options at his disposal.

A Wide Range of Attacking Options

Considering the situation, Xavi can’t really grumble, that is certain.
When Barcelona chose to re-sign Dembele and sign Raphinha for what amounted in a double swoop that puts the team’s attacking options to be one of the best in the world, there were more than a few eyebrows raised.

The fact that Xavi has access to so many radically different front three alternatives this season, with or without forcing Braithwaite into our third-string offensive lineup, speaks something about the harm that Barca is capable of this year.

Despite the pandemonium in the boardroom and the money accounts, Xavi and the team can only concentrate on the games and achieving great results, which appears to become much simpler with all these choices.