El Clasico: Between Guardiola’s and Ancelotti’s Achievements… What is the Fate of Barcelona and Real Madrid?

Lebanon Today

Tonight, Sunday, football fans’ eyes are on the Clasico match between Barcelona and Real Madrid, as both teams aspire to achieve victory and write a new chapter in the history of their encounters.

The “Santiago Bernabéu” stadium hosts the summit of the tenth round of the Spanish League between Real Madrid and Barcelona, ​​which is their first encounter this season after “Barça” dominated last season’s matches.

Today’s match marks Xabi Alonso’s first appearance as a coach in the Clasico, after he previously faced Barcelona as a player in Real Madrid’s ranks.

The match gains additional importance as it will determine the leader of the La Liga standings, as Real Madrid currently leads with 24 points, while Barcelona is in second place with 22 points.

Barcelona seeks to achieve its fifth consecutive victory over Real Madrid in all competitions, an achievement that was previously accomplished during the era of coach Pep Guardiola between 2008 and 2010, according to statistics from the “Opta” network.

Last season, coach Hans Flick’s team achieved a historic treble (League, King’s Cup, and Spanish Super Cup), after winning against Real Madrid 4 times in a row with results of 4-0 and 4-3 in the Spanish League, 3-2 after extra time in the King’s Cup final, and 5-2 in the local Super Cup.

Flick is considered one of only two coaches in the history of the Clasico who have managed to win their first four matches, along with Guardiola, who won five consecutive matches at the beginning of his time with Barcelona, ​​knowing that the German coach will not be present on the bench in today’s match due to suspension.

Flick possesses many winning attacking cards, most notably Marcus Rashford, who is playing his first Clasico, and is considered the most contributing player to goals with Barcelona this season (5 goals and 4 assists), surpassing Lamine Yamal (3 goals and 5 assists).

Despite the absence of both Robert Lewandowski and Dani Olmo due to injury, Flick has strong attacking options thanks to the brilliance of Rafinha (3 goals and two assists), Ferran Torres (5 goals and one assist), and Lopez (5 goals).

Barcelona has managed to score 33 goals in all competitions so far in the 2025-2026 season, which is the second highest record in the top five leagues after Bayern Munich (44 goals).

Barcelona has scored 24 goals in the Spanish League, which is the highest among all teams, and it is also the most that has hit the post and crossbar (10 times).

This is only the second time since Opta data recording began in the 2003-2004 season that a team has hit the goal frame 10 or more times during the first 9 matches of the season, after Barcelona itself last season (11 times).

Despite Flick’s distinguished record against Real Madrid and the strength of the attacking line, losing today’s match may bring back bad memories from the era of former coach Xavi Hernández.

“Barça” lost in their last match played away from home against Sevilla with a score of 1-4, which is their first defeat away from home after 15 matches without a loss (11 wins and 4 draws).

The Catalan team has not lost in two consecutive matches away from home since April 2024, when the second defeat was against Real Madrid with a score of 0-2 during the era of Xavi.

But after the loss in Andalusia, Barcelona returned strongly with a 2-1 victory over Girona in the Spanish League, then crushed Olympiacos 6-1 in the Champions League, where Fermin Lopez shone with a hat-trick, and Marcus Rashford added two goals.

On the other hand, Xabi Alonso seeks to break the “curse of the first Clasico” that faced most Real Madrid coaches, as 7 of the last 8 coaches lost their first Clasico in the Spanish League, with the exception of Zinedine Zidane, who won 2-1 at Camp Nou in 2016.

Real Madrid is experiencing a good period, as it has achieved 8 consecutive victories at home in the Spanish League, and the only loss it has suffered in the competition so far (against Atlético Madrid) was away from home.

The Royal team may achieve its ninth consecutive victory in the competition today for the first time since February 2015, a figure that was achieved during Carlo Ancelotti’s first term.

Kylian Mbappé enters today’s match with the aim of achieving his first victory in the Clasico against Barcelona, ​​knowing that the French star has a distinguished individual record against “Barça.”

Mbappé has scored 11 goals in 8 matches against Barcelona in various competitions with Paris Saint-Germain and Real Madrid, including 5 goals in 4 Clasico matches (he lost in all matches), making “Barça” the non-French team against which he has scored the most goals in his career.

Mbappé is experiencing a brilliant period this season, as he has scored 15 goals and made two goals in all competitions, and only Harry Kane (20 goals) surpasses him in Europe in the number of goals.

Mbappé scored a hat-trick in the last Clasico despite his team losing 4-3, a result that brought Barcelona closer to winning last season’s title.