In less than 48 hours, football fans around the world will be tuned in to the weekend's biggest match: El Clasico. Whether one is an avid La Liga follower or not, any football supporter surely will not want to miss out on two of the most high-profile and successful teams facing off against each other.
Earlier this season, Barcelona humiliated Real Madrid as they cruised to a 4-0 win at the capital club's own home ground. As such, Zinedine Zidane - who will be managing the team in his first Clasico as a manager - and his side will be hoping to give the Blaugrana a taste of their own medicine when they arrive at Camp Nou.
Luis Enrique's men are currently enjoying a massive ten point gap over Real Madrid and match could go some way in deciding who is crowned champions of La Liga this May. Should Barcelona get the job done at Camp Nou, it will be the first time since the 2013/2014 season that they have beaten their arch-rivals both at home and on the road.
With some of the biggest names in action this weekend, newspapers around the world have laid out who and who would comprise the best starting XIs. Let's have a look first at what British tabloid Daily Mail put together:
Which is the stronger lineup; Real Madrid's or Barcelona's?El Clasico live broadcast info: http://bit.ly/Clasico2016
Posted by LiveSoccerTV.com on Thursday, March 31, 2016
Not surprisingly, the tabloid has chosen Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez, and Neymar to lead Barcelona's attack, and Gareth Bale, Karim Benzema, and Cristiano Ronaldo to spearhead Real Madrid's offense. Then again, who wouldn't pick these six players? Moving to the man between the posts, Blaugrana star Claudio Bravo and his Real Madrid counterpart Keylor Navas are again pretty obvious choices.
As for Barcelona's defense and midfield, this is, naturally their best option, with the preferred partnership of Gerard Pique and Javier Mascherano in the center. Thomas Vermalen and especially Jeremy Mathieu have not exactly helped to inspire confidence among most Blaurgana supporters. Jordi Alba and Dani Alves may fancy their chances and have freedom to move up and down the wings, and the ever-reliable Sergio Busquets, Andres Iniesta, and Ivan Rakitic will assume their places in the middle of the park.
For Real Madrid, Rakitic's Croatian international colleague Luka Modric is a natural selection, as is 2014 World Cup winner Toni Kroos. However, the other selections for defense and midfield in the Daily Mail's pick may likely cause some debate among the team's legions of fans, with the exception of a few names.
Meanwhile, Spanish website AS.com opted to poll fans as to their preferred starting line-ups for Saturday's mouth-watering tie. Viewers were given a choice to pick which player will be best suited by position, and the highest-placed player will find himself in the starting group.
This, naturally will provide some more interesting selections as different fans have varying opinions. Let's have a look at the hosts first, so here is Barcelona's starting XI as per fan poll by AS.com:
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Barcelona's starting XI (4-3-3): Bravo; Alves, Pique, Mascherano, Jordi Alba; Rakitic, Busquets, Iniesta; Messi, Suarez, Neymar
Seems like the Daily Mail and AS.com voters are in agreement. No surprise there!
Now, let's move on to AS.com's picks for Real Madrid. This is where things get very interesting, especially when one compares the selection from Daily Mail. Below you will find AS.com's starting XI:
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Real Madrid's starting XI (4-3-3): Navas; Carvajal, Varane, Ramos, Marcelo; Modric, Casemiro, Kroos; Bale, Benzema, Cristiano
A quick glance shows that the back four of Carvajal, Varane, Ramos, and Marcelo is preferred to the Daily Mail's Danilo, Ramos, Pepe, and Marcelo. As per the AS.com poll, the defenders of choice ranked as such, with the numbers coming directly from the site:
Defenders:
Marcelo (32.516)
Carvajal (28.849)
Sergio Ramos (27.349)
Varane (21.033)
Pepe (17.689)
Danilo (4.750)
Nacho (2.880)
As one can see, interestingly, the English tabloid picked both Danilo and Pepe in their starting XI, but those two did not even make the top four for Real Madrid fans!
Other from that, the starting XIs from the Daily Mail and AS.com are exactly the same for Zidane's team. So what do you think? Are you more likely to agree with the English paper or the selections complied by polling those who will be cheering for Real Madrid on Saturday?
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