Competition and 4 Absentees for El Clasico

The first El Clasico in the 2017-18 La Liga season takes place this Saturday as we travel to
the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium to take on rivals Real Madrid.
Zinedine Zidane’s side already beat us in the Super Cup back in August but it is us who
head into the weekend’s fixture with an 11-point lead in the league.
However, Ernesto Valverde has a couple of absentees to deal with. They are as follows:

Paco Alcacer
The former-Valencia man picked up a leg injury midway through the first half of Sunday’s 4-0
thrashing of Deportivo La Coruna. Though the Spanish international has only started four of
our 16 La Liga matches this season, Ernesto Valverde admitted after the game it is a bit of a
setback heading into El Clasico.

Samuel Umtiti
Samuel Umtiti had been playing well this season as a regular in our starting lineup before
the centre-back suffered an injury at the start of the month. The 24-year- old is set for a two
month spell on the sidelines, ruling him out of facing Real Madrid indefinitely. Gerard Pique
and Thomas Vermaelen has been the centre-back pairing in recent weeks as a result.

Ousmane Dembele
The second most expensive player in the world suffered a serious injury at the start of the
season and although the young French sensation is back in training it will be a while before
Ousmane Dembele will return to the first team.

Rafinha
Ernesto Valverde said over the summer that Rafinha is back in the frame at Barcelona
having made 24 La Liga appearances over the past two seasons combined. However, the
Brazilian has only recently returned to training from a long-term injury so this weekend’s
showdown will come too soon for the versatile midfielder.

The La Liga betting odds point firmly in our favour and simply avoiding defeat on Saturday
will go along way towards regaining our La Liga title.
We have teamed up with sportsbook Betfair for this upcoming match to give away a
Barcelona shirt to one lucky winner. To win the shirt, simply guess the number of cards that
will be shown during the game. Rules below.

Here are the rules:

• • The first entrant to leave a comment below with the correct number of yellow cards in
    Saturday’s La Liga match between Real Madrid and Barcelona will win a football shirt
    of either team, of their choice
  • Each player is only allowed one guess
  • A yellow card counts as 1 card
  • A straight red card counts as 1 card
  • Two yellow cards to one player counts as 2 cards
  • Prizes are subject to availability
• UK entries only

To enter, please leave your name, prediction and an email address to contact you on in the
comments below. Your email address will not be made public nor re-sold.