Real Madrid vs Barcelona LIVE: Result, final score, and reaction after Federico Valverde settles El Clasico

Real Madrid: Lunin, Carvajal, Militao, Alaba, Mendy, Kroos, Tchouameni, Modric, Valverde, Benzema, Vini Jr

Barcelona: Ter Stegen, S Roberto, Kounde, Eric, Balde, Busquets, Pedri, F De Jong, Raphinha, Lewandowski, Dembele

The season so far:

Both teams are level on 22 points at the top of La Liga. FCB are first by virtue of goal difference at the moment, though it’s head-to-head goal difference which matters at the end of the campaign.

They have identical match records to this point: Seven wins and one draw apiece, but while Barca have scored 20 and conceded only one, Real have scored 19 and conceded seven.

A fantastic tie awaits!

Lots of excitement building around one of the most popular fixtures on the planet - will table-topping Barcelona have enough to see off the champions of Europe on their own turf?

When the European Super League project was gathering pace in spring 2021, Paris Saint-Germain were of course approached. The feeling from the organisers, according to well-placed sources, was that the Qatari-owned club thought this was “a brilliant entertainment project”. PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaifi nevertheless insisted, for his part, that it should be done under the auspices of Uefa. The executive wanted to keep the European game together.

There are a few potential ironies to that, though, because the politics of all this are causing deepening fissures. It is just as the club season splits for Qatar’s World Cup that we could well see wider splits in the game itself. There is certainly a deepening sense that football is on the brink of an earthquake, and a major shift in the landscape. There are too many tremors.

Many people have already noted the recent speeches by the presidents of ‘the Super League three’, Real Madrid’s Florentino Perez, Barcelona’s Joan Laporta and Juventus’ Andrea Agnelli. The trio have made new rallying calls for their project, just two months before an initial judicial recommendation comes in for the European Court of Justice case that will decide whether Uefa is a monopoly and should be broken up.

Miguel Delaney’s deep dive on the problems and immediate future of the elite game:

Real Madrid and Barcelona meet in the first El Clasico of the season.

The two rivals are level on points at the top of La Liga after eight games.

Barcelona have conceded just once in the league so far, but suffered another major Champions League set-back in midweek with a 3-3 home draw against Inter Milan leaving hope of progression from the group slim.

Carlo Ancelotti’s hosts, held by Shakthar Donetsk on Tuesday evening, have been in middling form but will recognise an opportunity to strike a potentially significant early blow in the race for the title.

Here’s everything you need to know ahead of the fixture.