El Clásico without the classics?

With the notorious El Clásico looming only 3 days away, there are quite a few problems that need to be addressed both for the La Liga leaders and for the struggling Los Blancos.

First of all, F.C. Barcelona captain, and arguably the best player in the world, Lionel Messi, will sit out the game. The 31-year-old superstar suffered a fractured arm during Barcelona's game against Sevilla last Saturday. The 60 million euro superstar scored early in the game in the 12th minute but landed on his arm after a collision with Sevilla midfielder #22, Franco Vásquez. However, Barcelona secured the win with Luis Suárez and Ivan Rakitić both netting a goal each. However, this raises the question of how will the 25 times La Liga champions fare against the 3 consecutive time Champions League winners without their captain, their leading El Clásico scorer? They will need young stars such as Philippe Coutinho, and Ousmane Dembélé to step up and take the place of #10.

However, this is not to say that Real Madrid does not have their own problems. Despite a 4-0-1 start to La Liga, which to their credit had them at the number one spot, it all fell apart after a 3-0 loss to Sevilla after which the team went 1-3-1 in all competitions. Their only win came two days back against Viktoria Plzen. Also, going further, 3 of these five games were scoreless for Los Blancos with striker Benzema failing to find the net. This begs the question of did the loss of star striker Cristiano Ronaldo affect the team? Furthermore, Julen Lopetegui has not been able to prove himself anything but unfit to take the place of Zinedine Zidane, former footballer, and former Real Madrid coach. It is up to the European giants to determine how will they take the loss of their highest goalscorer, and most achieved coach.

It will be the first El Clásico since December of 2007 that neither Ronaldo nor Messi have played in. Both sides have taken heavy hits, but one can argue that Real has endured significantly more. The legendary rivalry is back, and it will take a combination of skill, tactics, and a bit of good luck for either side to triumph over its life-long rival.

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