Akin Ayomide
Last season Barcelona romped to four Clasico victories over Real Madrid but led by in-form striker Kylian Mbappe, Los Blancos are aiming to redress the balance on Sunday in La Liga.
Hansi Flick’s side won a domestic treble, beating Madrid twice in La Liga and in the Copa del Rey and Spanish Super Cup finals, precipitating the end of Carlo Ancelotti’s reign.
The Italian’s replacement Xabi Alonso has started well, with Madrid leading Barcelona by two points at the top of the table going into the clash at the Santiago Bernabeu.
Madrid have some doubts around them regarding their performance in big matches, having lost against Paris Saint-Germain in the Club World Cup semi-finals this summer and then suffering a 5-2 thrashing by Atletico Madrid in a derby in September.
A victory in the Clasico would open up a five-point gap on their rivals and ease those concerns, while Flick’s Barca are yet to reach the same level they managed last season.
Madrid striker Mbappe, however, has hit new heights in the current campaign after finishing the previous campaign strongly.
Mbappe scored in his 11 previous consecutive matches for club and country before Wednesday’s Champions League win over Juventus, in which Jude Bellingham netted the only goal.
The 26-year-old has scored 10 of Madrid’s 20 La Liga goals, leading Spain’s scoring charts, and has 15 for his club across all competitions, totalling 54 percent of their goals.
“We’re not dependent on him,” said Madrid coach Alonso last week, although the statistics hint otherwise.
“We are very happy with his performance, he’s being decisive.”
Exactly a year before this weekend’s Clasico, Barcelona visited the Bernabeu and came away with a 4-0 victory, a match notable for the French superstar’s struggle to beat the Catalans’ high defensive line in his first outing against them for Madrid.
Mbappe had one goal disallowed for offside and was caught offside eight times in total. The forward was “shrunken and without venom”, wrote Spanish newspaper AS.
“It’s time to change my situation and show who I am as a player,” pledged Mbappe a few weeks later as Madrid continued to slump.
By the time Mbappe faced Barcelona next, in the Spanish Super Cup final in January, he had clicked into a higher gear.
This season Turkish playmaker Arda Guler has started to form a strong connection with the forward, with a knack for spotting Mbappe’s bursts forward. “Arda gets between the lines and there he finds Mbappe well,” explained Alonso. With Barcelona struggling badly in defence at the start of the current campaign, Madrid are confident Mbappe can get in behind to devastating effect on Sunday.