90min

Barcelona predicted lineup vs Real Madrid - Supercopa de Espana final

By Grey Whitebloom

Xavi Hernandez played in 42 Clasicos as a player, winning 17 and scoring five goals
Xavi Hernandez played in 42 Clasicos as a player, winning 17 and scoring five goals / Quality Sport Images/GettyImages
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Barcelona face their eternal foes Real Madrid in the first Clasico of 2023 on Sunday night.

The Supercopa de Espana may not be the most prestigious prize on offer for Barcelona this season. But Sunday's final gives Xavi Hernandez the first chance to lift a piece of silverware as manager of his boyhood club.

Here's the XI Xavi may deploy to win his first trophy with Barcelona since the 2015 Champions League final.

Barcelona predicted lineup vs Real Madrid (4-3-3)

Robert Lewandowski
Robert Lewandowski is one goal shy of 20 across all competitions for Barcelona in his debut season at the club / Yasser Bakhsh/GettyImages

GK: Marc-Andre ter Stegen - In La Liga, Ter Stegen is shipping one goal every four hours. Outside of league competition, opponents are finding the net every 48 minutes against the German.

RB: Sergi Roberto - As a Barcelona academy product, Clasico games mean that little bit more to Roberto and his fellow Masia graduates.

CB: Jules Kounde - Across six meetings with Real Madrid for Sevilla and Barcelona, Kounde has lost five matches (D1).

CB: Ronald Araujo - The towering header which Araujo planted past Thibaut Courtois in Barcelona's emphatic 4-0 victory at the Santiago Bernabeu last season was the culmination of a carefully choreographed set-piece. Madrid will have to be wary of another repeat routine.

LB: Jordi Alba - One of Alba's secrets to success is a healthy and heavy sleeping routine. The left-back is out for the count "for 12 to 13 hours at night. Then I nap for two, three or four hours more.”

CM: Gavi - A rare patch of light in a bleak Clasico defeat earlier this season, Gavi was only on the pitch for half an hour but managed to make more fouls than any other player on either team (four).

CM: Frenkie de Jong - The Dutchman is well aware of his strengths. "My quality is my intuition," he once said. "I can't ignore that. Because then I would be a player of which there are thousands walking around the fields.”

CM: Pedri - Last year, Pedri admitted that he would have accepted Madrid's offer had Los Blancos been impressed with his trial as a teenager despite growing up as a Barcelona fan.

RW: Ousmane Dembele - Real Madrid are the only opponent Dembele has faced more than five times and still failed to score against (ten goalless outings).

ST: Robert Lewandowski - It will be some time before those in Madrid forget the evening in April 2013 when Lewandowski rattled four goals past Los Blancos for Borussia Dortmund. Barcelona, you suspect, would settle for one from the Pole this weekend.

LW: Ansu Fati - Despite two goals in the Clasico, Fati is yet to feature in a victory against Real Madrid.

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