{"id":24707,"date":"2025-10-24T06:04:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T06:04:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=24707"},"modified":"2025-10-24T06:04:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T06:04:08","slug":"mbappes-real-madrid-aiming-to-end-barca-clasico-dominance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=24707","title":{"rendered":"Mbappe’s Real Madrid aiming to end Barca Clasico dominance"},"content":{"rendered":"
Last season Barcelona romped to four Clasico victories over Real Madrid but led by in-form striker Kylian Mbappe, Los Blancos are aiming to redress the balance on Sunday in La Liga.<\/p>\n

Hansi Flick’s side won a domestic treble, beating Madrid twice in La Liga and in the Copa del Rey and Spanish Super Cup finals, precipitating the end of Carlo Ancelotti’s reign.<\/p>\n

The Italian’s replacement Xabi Alonso has started well, with Madrid leading Barcelona by two points at the top of the table going into the clash at the Santiago Bernabeu.<\/p>\n

Madrid have some doubts around them regarding their performance in big matches, having lost against Paris Saint-Germain in the Club World Cup semi-finals this summer and then suffering a 5-2 thrashing by Atletico Madrid in a derby in September.<\/p>\n

A victory in the Clasico would open up a five-point gap on their rivals and ease those concerns, while Flick’s Barca are yet to reach the same level they managed last season.<\/p>\n

Madrid striker Mbappe, however, has hit new heights in the current campaign after finishing the previous campaign strongly.<\/p>\n

Mbappe scored in his 11 previous consecutive matches for club and country before Wednesday’s Champions League win over Juventus, in which Jude Bellingham netted the only goal.<\/p>\n

The 26-year-old has scored 10 of Madrid’s 20 La Liga goals, leading Spain’s scoring charts, and has 15 for his club across all competitions, totalling 54 percent of their goals.<\/p>\n

“We’re not dependent on him,” said Madrid coach Alonso last week, although the statistics hint otherwise.<\/p>\n

“We are very happy with his performance, he’s being decisive.”<\/p>\n

Mbappe struggled for confidence and form in his early days at Madrid, with his first Clasico a huge disappointment.<\/p>\n

Exactly a year before this weekend’s Clasico, Barcelona visited the Bernabeu and came away with a 4-0 victory, a match notable for the French superstar’s struggle to beat the Catalans’ high defensive line in his first outing against them for Madrid.<\/p>\n

Mbappe had one goal disallowed for offside and was caught offside eight times in total. The forward was “shrunken and without venom”, wrote Spanish newspaper AS.<\/p>\n

“It’s time to change my situation and show who I am as a player,” pledged Mbappe a few weeks later as Madrid continued to slump.<\/p>\n

By the time Mbappe faced Barcelona next, in the Spanish Super Cup final in January, he had clicked into a higher gear.<\/p>\n

Madrid were dismantled 5-2, but Mbappe found the net, as he did in their far tighter 3-2 Copa del Rey final defeat.<\/p>\n

In May Mbappe, now in full flow, hit a hat-trick against Barcelona but Los Blancos still fell 4-3 at the Olympic stadium as Flick’s side virtually wrapped up the league title.<\/p>\n

This season Turkish playmaker Arda Guler has started to form a strong connection with the forward, with a knack for spotting Mbappe’s bursts forward.<\/p>\n

“Arda gets between the lines and there he finds Mbappe well,” explained Alonso.<\/p>\n

With Barcelona struggling badly in defence at the start of the current campaign, Madrid are confident Mbappe can get in behind to devastating effect on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Key stats<\/p>\n

10 – wins in a row at home for Real Madrid across all competitions, their joint longest in a decade<\/p>\n

44 – offsides drawn by Barcelona this season in La Liga, more than any other side in Europe’s top five leagues<\/p>\n

105 – Clasico wins for Real Madrid, to Barcelona’s 104, while there have been 52 draws<\/p>\n

Fixtures<\/p>\n

Friday (all times GMT)<\/p>\n

Real Sociedad v Sevilla (1900)<\/p>\n

Saturday<\/p>\n

Girona v Real Oviedo (1200), Espanyol v Elche (1415), Athletic Bilbao v Getafe (1630), Valencia v Villarreal (1900)<\/p>\n

Sunday<\/p>\n

Mallorca v Levante (1200), Real Madrid v Barcelona (1415), Osasuna v Celta Vigo (1630), Rayo Vallecano v Alaves (1900)<\/p>\n

Monday<\/p>\n

Real Betis v Atletico Madrid (1900)<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last season Barcelona romped to four Clasico victories over Real Madrid but led by in-form striker Kylian Mbappe, Los Blancos are aiming to redress the balance on Sunday in La Liga. Hansi Flick’s side won a domestic treble, beating Madrid twice in La Liga and in the Copa del Rey and Spanish Super Cup finals, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24707"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24707\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}