Real Madrid has their biggest match of the season this weekend as they head to the Camp Nou to take on Barcelona in the first El Clasico of the season. Real Madrid come in off the back of back-to-back 4-1 wins over Sevilla and RB Leipzig, while Barcelona are coming in after suffering their first defeat of the season in a 4-2 loss to PSG.
Despite this, Real Madrid are still coming in as heavy underdogs, with many seeing it as difficult for Real Madrid to come home with all three points. However, as we all know, anything can happen in 90 minutes on a football pitch, and we have seen Real Madrid pull out the unlikeliest of victories before, so who's to say they can't this time?
Jose Mourinho has a lot he has to get right in order to come back to the Bernabeu with all three points, with these being three of the biggest keys to victory against Barcelona this weekend.
1. Real Madrid must stop Lamine Yamal
The first one goes without saying: Real Madrid have to do everything they can to put the clamps on Lamine Yamal. The 19-year-old has been playing out of his mind so far this season, with a jaw-dropping 10 goals and 10 assists through 12 games in all competitions, and will no doubt prove to be a problem for Real Madrid's shaky backline. Yamal's record against Real Madrid in the past is solid, with three goals and two assists in nine games, as he likes to show up when the lights are brightest in El Clasico.
Jose Mourinho and Real Madrid need to mitigate his threat as much as possible if they hope to walk away with a win, and thankfully they have a defender who may know exactly how to shut down Lamine Yamal, his compatriot, Marc Cucurella. Cucurella is a more defensive fullback, which will play well into helping shut down Yamal, as he won't have to get involved in the attack as much and can focus on his defending; and to add on top of that, Yan Diomande will be starting on the left-wing, and he tracks back to do his defensive work more than Vinicius Junior, giving Cucurella a slight bit of help to shut down the teenage phenom.
2. The attacking line needs to beat Barcelona's high-line trap
When you go up against Barcelona, but more specifically a Hansi Flick team, you know what you're going to get: an incredibly high defensive line that suffocates you, compressing all the space on the pitch, dominating possession, and killing any hopes of a counterattack. Thankfully for Real Madrid, however, they have two very important weapons to beat this trap: Kylian Mbappe and Yan Diomande. Real Madrid has to take advantage of their speedy attackers and Barcelona's defenders, who don't have nearly as much pace, to get in behind and get as many one-on-one chances with Joan Garcia as they can.
Kylian Mbappe and Yan Diomande getting fed balls from Arda Guler from a deeper midfield role could be the perfect formula to beat the high-line trap, pending Mbappe's ability to stay onside, because we all know how often he goes too early and ruins an attack with a silly offside.
3. Mourinho needs his Mourinho magic for a total defensive masterclass
And finally, our last key to victory comes in an area Real Madrid have been struggling this season: defense. But not just the backline; defending as a whole team. This Barcelona team is as attacking as a team gets, and going to an environment like the Camp Nou is always tough. Barca will dominate possession, and when they do, Mourinho needs to get his players to defend as a unit, not just relying on the midfield and backline to do the dirty work. Yan Diomande is an attacker who does his defensive work, but in this type of game, even Kylian Mbappe will have to do his fair share of marking and pressing to help the team as a whole.
We've seen Jose Mourinho pull out defensive masterclasses at the Camp Nou before, and this needs to be no different. Real Madrid's last two matches have been good all-around team performances, with every player knowing their role and executing it, and that is exactly what they will need this weekend if they hope to pull off their biggest win of the season so far.
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