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Spanish La Liga biggest match will not feature Barcelona’s Lionel Messi or Former Real Madrid star Cristiano Roanldo on Sunday’s El Clasico clash at Camp Nou, which has been a personal playground for two larger-than-life global icons.
Cristiano Ronaldo, of course, has departed for Juventus after a nine-year stay in Madrid that yielded 450 goals and 15 trophies including four Champions League crowns.
And now Lionel Messi is absent too, with Barca’s talisman sidelined after breaking his arm in last weekend’s 4-2 victory against Sevilla – a result that sent the reigning champions top of the table and gives them the chance to move seven points clear of struggling Real on Sunday.
Madrid Coach Julen Lopetegui has come in for fierce criticism this season, having presided over a run of five games without a win.
The team going eight hours and one minute without scoring before Tuesday’s unconvincing 2-1 triumph over Viktoria Plzen that saw the team whistled off the pitch by their own fans.
While, Barcelona maintained their 100% start in this season’s Champions League as they cruised to victory over Inter Milan at the Nou Camp on Wednesday in Messi’s absence.
Messi has been in scintillating form this season, scoring seven and laying on another five goals in Spain’s top flight, while also hitting five in the Champions League.
Where are Madrid’s goals without Ronaldo?
To say that Madrid are finding it difficult to come to terms with the summer departures of Ronaldo and equally legendary coach Zinedine Zidane is putting it mildly.
Los Blancos have drawn one and lost three of their past four league games, including shock defeats by Alaves and Levante, to drop down to seventh in the table and leave new manager Julen Lopetegui’s position hanging by a thread.
The root of their problems is obvious: they have only scored once in those four games, and that came from left-back Marcelo in last weekend’s 2-1 home defeat by Levante.
When Madrid won the league and Champions League double in 2017, 48 league goals were provided by Ronaldo, Alvaro Morata and James Rodriguez. All of them have now left, with only the unproven Mariano Diaz added.
Who will replace Messi ?
Barca boss Ernesto Valverde had a simple answer when asked how he intended to compensate for the loss of Messi in the aftermath of the Argentine’s injury last weekend, saying: “I don’t know.”, BBC reports
But, for the short-term, Barca do have to find a way of replacing him, and at least Valverde has plenty of options at his disposal.
The most obvious is Ousmane Dembele, the speedy winger who was signed in a £135.5m deal from Borussia Dortmund following the departure of Neymar before the start of last season.
But Dembele’s time at the club so far has been maddeningly inconsistent, with the Frenchman looking equally likely to race past three opponents or sloppily concede possession whenever he receives the ball, and regularly provoking the ire of Luis Suarez by concluding a promising run with a wasteful cross or over-ambitious shot.