Barcelona host Real Madrid in the first El Clasico of the current La Liga seaosn on Saturday. The kick-off is at 16:00 CET.

Preview

Even though the Catalans sit in 9th in the table with seven points after games while the Whites boast a tally of 10 points from opening five matches, it's Barca who are placed as favourites to win the weekend's clash at Camp Nou.

Both sides suffered narrow defeats in the previous round of La Liga but their respective responses to those failures were completely opposite. While Ronald Koeman's men destroyed Ferencvaros 5-1 in their Champions League opener on Tuesday, Zinedine Zidane's side were beaten 3-2 by COVID-ridden Shakhtar Donetsk on Wednesday. Just as a reminder, the Ukrainian team had more than 10 players unavailable for the match after contracting coronavirus.

There are a few important injury absentees in either squad as Marc-Andre ter Stegen, Samuel Umtiti and Jordi Alba won't feature for Barca while Dani Carvajal, Alvaro Odriozola, Martin Odegaard, Eden Hazard and Mariano Diaz have all been ruled out for Madrid. Sergio Ramos, in turn, remains in doubt with a knee injury.

Prediction

The Catalans drew their arch-rivals at Camp Nou last December before being beaten at the Bernabeu in March, and thus will be eager to get even with Zidane's men for last term's results. Considering Madrid's injury issues in almost every line, Barca have every chance to scoop all three points on the weekend.

Tip

Barcelona to win or draw and both teams to score at 2.14 with 1XBET.