El Clasico without Messi & Ronaldo!

The last time neither Lionel Messi nor Cristiano Ronaldo played in El Clasico was in December 2007, but next weekend both superstars will miss the game many consider the biggest in club football. While Ronaldo left Real Madrid in the recent transfer window to join Juventus in Serie A, Messi picked up a serious injury in FC Barcelona’s 4-2 win over Sevilla this past weekend. Ronaldo played 33 Clasicos between 2009 and 2018, while Messi has not missed one since 2007. The Argentine has played 35 successive El Clasicos and be is the fixture’s all-time record goalscorer, netting 26 times in 38 clashes with Real overall. Last Saturday, however, Messi fractured a bone in his right arm and will now miss three weeks of football. Both sides are currently not at their best, but this time around, they are also missing their best. But while Real have sold their superstar and struggled since, Barcelona are still pretty much dependent on Messi and it will be interesting to see how they can cope without him. Barcelona ended their mini-crisis when they beat Sevilla 4-2 – the game saw Messi assist the first goal and score the second inside 13 minutes, before he had to be replaced after 26 minutes due to his injury. His teammates brought the victory home and climbed back to the top of the LaLiga table, while Real have dropped to seventh spot after extending their winless run in LaLiga to four games. Julen Lopetegui is on borrowed time and, if he is in the dugout at the kick-off for El Clasico, he will need a win at his side’s bitter rivals to save his job. Under him, Real have now lost four of their five games in all competitions and went 481 minutes without scoring – that’s over eight hours of football without finding the back of the net. And while Lopetegui surely is not the only one to blame for Real’s misery, the record of the Spaniard is not making for good reading. He has lost five out of 12 games in charge, and, in comparison, it took his predecessor Zinedine Zidane 65 games to pick up five defeats. Many claim that Real’s football actually started to look more pleasing on the eye, but Lopetegui was let down by key players, who were supposed to step up after Ronaldo’s departure. But Gareth Bale, Karim Benzema and even Marco Asensio all could not cover the goals of Ronaldo. It remains to be seen whether any of them will step up in El Clasico or whether a Messi-less Barcelona will put the final nail in Lopetegui’s coffin.