A classic without Thibaut Courtois, the wall of Mourinho's Madrid

BarcelonaBarça and Real Madrid will face each other this Sunday night at the Camp Nou (9:00 PM, DAZN). Fate has willed that Lamine Yamal's first Clásico at the Camp Nou coincides with the return of José Mourinho as the white team's manager to a stadium where he received an unforgettable 5-0 defeat in the memory of the culés and where he starred in absolutely regrettable outbursts. The Portuguese coach, who will return to the blaugrana stronghold thirteen years later, will have the last-minute absence of Thibaut Courtois, who is suffering from the flu. The Ukrainian goalkeeper Illia Voloshyn has been called up to the squad in place of the Belgian. Another Ukrainian, Andriy Lunin, will be the starter for the match.

Facing them will be Hansi Flick's Barça, which has won all of its matches in La Liga and has only conceded one defeat this season: against PSG, on Tuesday, at the home of the reigning two-time Champions League winners. Real Madrid arrives at the fixture six points behind the 'blaugranes', after having lost away to Betis (1-0) and Atlético de Madrid (2-1), and without the suspended Vinícius, who will serve the second of his four-match ban for pulling the hair of Saliba, from Villarreal. The Brazilian's absence, however, is actually doing the Madrid side a favor, because it has allowed us to see the best performances from Yan Diomande.

The Camp Nou will host a duel between a choral ensemble that enchants and is a goal-scoring machine, and a Real Madrid side "under construction" as Mourinho's main argument to deflect the criticism his team's poor play often receives. The Whites are not convincing, but they arrive at the classic with renewed morale after having accumulated four consecutive victories and having scored 12 goals in the last three matches.

José Mourinho's doubts

The Portuguese coach did not want to give any clues about his starting eleven in the preview. After beating Leipzig, he stated that the double pivot of Camavinga - Bernardo Silva had made him forget the Tchouaméni - Arda Güler pair, and that he had liked how the right flank had functioned, with Valverde as a full-back, Bernardo as a pivot, and Güler, the player in the best form for the whites with the permission of Diomande and Mbappé, as a winger. Tchouaméni, however, rested against Leipzig and could be a starter at the Camp Nou.

As for the rest, Bellingham is a starter in the eleven, Cucurella will experience his first clash against Barça as a Madrid player, and the pair of center-backs will come from these three names: Huijsen, Rüdiger, and Konate. Regarding Lamine Yamal, Mourinho said that "he is a great player and is respected," but that he will not change his team's structure to stop the blue and garnet star.

Without Jules Kounde

For Barça, conditioned by injuries, there are fewer unknowns. Flick made it clear in the preview that he will not force Kounde and, therefore, Espart is pointing towards being the right back.The youth academy player excelled on Tuesday against PSG. Without Dani Olmo, Fermín López will be the attacking midfielder ahead of Rodri, who rested against the Parisians by explicit instruction of the physical trainer Pepe Conde, and Pedri. Anthony Gordon also starts ahead of Karim Adeyemi as a companion to Raphinha and Lamine Yamal in the forward line.

Barça, having scored 39 goals in nine matchdays (16 more than Madrid), wants to leave the Madrid side nine points behind in the table and embarrass José Mourinho, who did not want to heat up the pre-match with any grandiloquent statement beyond saying that, with him, Real Madrid wins titles. All this, just a few months after clinching the League last season right under the nose of their eternal rival.