No Messi or Ronaldo, but Clasico could still define La Liga this season

FOR the first time since 2007 arguably club football’s biggest game will not feature either Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo, yet Sunday’s Clasico between Barcelona and Real Madrid will be as feisty as ever with plenty riding on it.

Real 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.

Local media reports suggest that any sort of negative result away to their great rivals could spell the end for the 52-year-old at the Bernabeu.

“We haven’t always won when we deserved to but football is like that,” Lopetegui said. “We came from a run of quite a lot of games without winning and the objective was to win in circumstances that were not at all simple.

“We need to gain a little tranquillity bit by bit: we have to keep going. On Sunday we have a game that motivates us a huge amount.”

Barca, who will be without the injured Messi, sit top of La Liga on 18 points, just one ahead of the chasing pack in what is shaping up to be the tightest title race in years.

Criticism has been levelled at the Catalan side that in recent times they have become too reliant on their talisman and they now face the ultimate test to show they can function with Messi sidelined, too.

“We always want to play as a team, but when Messi is there he gives us a touch of brilliance that is extraordinary,” coach Ernesto Valverde said.