Real Madrid and Barcelona face off at 21:00 CET today, with all eyes on the biggest match in the world.
Yesterday however, news broke that Real Madrid would be without one of their biggest stars. After struggling to shake off a muscle problem throughout the week, Karim Benzema missed training again on Saturday and was declared unfit for the match.
That has created something of a selection headache for manager Carlo Ancelotti. His attack is designed with Benzema in mind and much of the Madrid offence revolves around him.
In their predicted line-ups, most of the Spanish sports dailies see Marco Asensio as a favourite to start the match. Mundo Deportivo, Sport and Diario AS all say that he will start, with the latter two believing he will play through the middle.
Only Mundo Deportivo give Luka Jovic or Mariano a chance of starting, with Asensio on the more traditional right-hand side. All three coincide on the players behind the front line: Thibaut Courtois, Dani Carvajal, Eder Militao, David Alaba, Nacho Fernandez; Luka Modric, Casemiro, Toni Kroos.
The major absence for Barcelona is Sergino Dest, who picked up an injury against Galatasaray on Thursday. Both Sport and Mundo Deportivo believe Dani Alves will replace him at right-back.
The only difference between their two predictions was whether Gavi or Frenkie de Jong will start in midfield. Should they have everything else right, Xavi’s team line will read: Marc-Andre ter Stegen, Alves, Ronald Araujo, Gerard Pique, Jordi Alba; Gavi/de Jong, Sergio Busquets, Pedri Gonzalez; Ferran Torres, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Ousmane Dembele.
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