El Clasico as it happened: Cristiano Ronaldo grabs late goal as ten-man Real Madrid overcome Barcelona
Follow all the latest from club football's grandest showpiece at the Nou Camp
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Your support makes all the difference.¡Hola! Welcome to The Independent’s live coverage of Saturday’s El Clasico.
Zinedine Zidane takes charge of Real Madrid in club football's grandest showpiece for the first time, with his side ten points off their league-leading rivals.
Barcelona have all but tied up La Liga and, given their dominance over the division, even a defeat today would not be that damaging.
If Real do pick up an unlikely win at the Nou Camp however, it could land an important psychological blow on Barça, especially if both sides meet in the forthcoming Champions League semi-finals.
Barcelona vs Real Madrid
Kick-off: 7.30pm
Five things to look out for at the Nou Camp
Team news
Barcelona: Bravo; Alves, Piqué, Mascherano, Alba; Rakitic, Busquets, Iniesta; Messi, Suarez, Neymar.
Substitutes: Ter Stegen, Bartra, Vermaelen, Sergi Roberto, Arda, Rafinha, Munir
Real Madrid: Navas; Carvajal, Pepe, Ramos, Marcelo; Kroos, Casemiro, Modric; Ronaldo, Benzema, Bale
Substitutes: Casilla, Danilo, Nacho, Vazquez, Isco, James, Jesé
Follow all the action on our live blog below…
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What’s the form?
Barcelona: WWWWWD
Real Madrid: LWWWWW
What does the league table look like?
What happened last time?
Barcelona 4 Real Madrid 0
La Liga, 21 November 2015
What are the odds?
Barcelona: 7/11
Draw: 37/10
Real Madrid: 43/10
Barcelona 5 Real Madrid 0: 55/1
¡Hola, mis amigos! Welcome to The Independent's live coverage of today's El Clasico.
The 231st meeting of old rivals Barcelona and Real Madrid is set to kick-off at 7.30pm BST and Mark Critchley (@mjcritchley) will be here covering every kick of any consequence.
We'll have regular updates from around 7.00pm. ¡Hasta luego!
Team news
Barcelona: Bravo; Alves, Piqué, Mascherano, Alba; Rakitic, Busquets, Iniesta; Messi, Suarez, Neymar.
Substitutes: Ter Stegen, Bartra, Vermaelen, Sergi Roberto, Arda, Rafinha, Munir
Real Madrid: Navas; Carvajal, Pepe, Ramos, Marcelo; Kroos, Casemiro, Modric; Ronaldo, Benzema, Bale
Substitutes: Casilla, Danilo, Nacho, Vazquez, Isco, James, Jesé
So, reactions to the line-ups? Largely as expected, all told, though Danilo may be disappointed to see Dani Carvajal starting ahead of him.For the casual observers who want to see the world's best players compete in club football's greatest showpiece event, all that will matter is that a full complement of both sides' attacking talents will be on display.
Lionel Messi, Neymar, Luis Suarez, Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale, Karim Benzema. Oof.
Thru history Madrid have only won 1 of 18 visits to Barca when blaugrana have lead La Liga - at Les Corts in 1930 (via @2010MisterChip )
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Zinedine Zidane's record in El Clasico as a player
Real Madrid head coach Zinedine Zidane
P11 W4 D4 L3Three goals scored
14 min: 14 minutes on the clock means we have another tribute to Johan Cruyff and the whole stadium applauds in memory of one football's true greats.
16 min: Gareth Bale creeps in behind Barcelona's backline but his low cross has the heat taken off it by Gerard Pique's backside.The centre-back almost slides onto the ball, which allows Bravo to clear up the danger. In truth, Pique's block was so unconventional he was lucky not to handle it.