How will Barcelona Lineup vs Real Madrid

Barcelona Midfielders

We don't think that Barcelona manager Ronald Koeman will go with a three-man defense tonight because they will need quality personnel at the centre of the pitch to go toe-to-toe with the Real Madrid midfield.

Pedri and Sergio Busquets have done a good job together in central midfield and will need Frenkie De Jong to join them in order to keep up with Real Madrid's experienced midfield combination of Casemiro, Toni Kroos and Luka Modric.

De Jong has been in good form of late and they will need his calm head and technical finesse to navigate what is expected to be an intense midfield battle. Both Toni Kroos and Luka Modric have been in great form and Ronald Koeman will want his midfielders to not afford them much time or space on the ball tonight.

Barcelona forwards

Lionel Messi will lead Barcelona's frontline against Real Madrid tonight. The Argentine has been playing some wonderful football of late and has been extremely productive in terms of goals and assists since the turn of the year.

He did struggle to hit his stride in the early part of the season but has looked way more settled in recent times. He has led Barcelona's resurgence from the front and has played the biggest role in reviving their La Liga title charge this season.

In his last 10 matches for Barcelona across all competitions, Lionel Messi has scored 10 goals and provided five assists. He has not had much luck in El Clasicos in recent times but going by his current form, he should be able to make an impact tonight.

Antoine Griezmann is expected to be deployed on the right side. The Frenchman has been in good form and scored twice for France during the international break. Prior to that, he found the net in Barcelona's games against Real Sociedad and SD Huesca.

Ousmane Dembele will join Antoine Griezmann and Lionel Messi in attack. Dembele's pace will cause problems for an injury-ravaged Real Madrid backline. He will keep the Blancos' fullbacks on their toes with his propensity to run in behind the defense.

Dembele can shoot with both feet and his unpredictable nature is certain to cause problems. If the match does end up being open and end-to-end, he will have a huge role to play tonight.

Ronald Koeman is expected to shake up his system tonight as they square off against their bitter rivals. Their chances could very well depend on how his players take to the transition.

About the author

Shambhu is a European and international football journalist at Sportskeeda who focuses on previews, listicles and news articles. An ardent Manchester United supporter since before his teenage years, he started following the Red Devils by age 10 watching MUTV on television. Shambhu is also a highly-revered rapper and a playback singer on Spotify, having a whopping 1 million monthly listeners.

For his articles, Shambhu believes in triple-checking every piece of information, relying on trusted websites like Transfermarkt and Opta, and staying away from speculative publications. He believes that his law degree helped him to be more articulate and meticulous with his content and one of his core strengths is seamlessly involving emotion in his write-ups owing to the love for the sport. For Sportskeeda, has done exclusive interviews with Spanish legends Gaizka Mendieta and Fernando Morientes so far, and his articles boast of a huge readership of close to 50 million.

Shambhu's favorite footballer is Lionel Messi, and the Argentine attaining glory in 2022 is his favorite FIFA World Cup moment. He believes only Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland could replicate Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo's rivalry in the years to come. His favorite manager is Sir Alex Ferguson due to the Scot's unmatched longevity at the top.

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Edited by Shambhu Ajith

How will Barcelona Lineup vs Real Madrid | El Clasico (2020-21)

Barcelona Midfielders

Barcelona forwards