Overview
Barcelona is facing the opportunity to turn El Clasico into a perfect coronation night right before their arch-rival Real Madrid. Just by not losing at Camp Nou, Hansi Flick's team will officially win La Liga in the 2025-2026 season.
This will be a special milestone for Flick. If he successfully defends the throne, the German strategist will become the fourth Barcelona coach in the 21st century to win two consecutive La Liga titles in his first two seasons leading the club, after Pep Guardiola, Luis Enrique and Ernesto Valverde.
Although a draw is enough to complete the task, Barcelona clearly wants to defeat Real Madrid in the most convincing way. After the 4-3 victory last season, Flick could become Barca's second coach in this century to win the first 2 home El Clasico matches in La Liga, after Guardiola.
The current form of the Catalan team makes fans even more confident. Barcelona has won 10 consecutive matches in La Liga, the longest winning streak under Flick. In club history, only Guardiola, Frank Rijkaard, Luis Enrique and Tito Vilanova have achieved a streak of 11 consecutive wins or more in this tournament.
Not only winning evenly, Barca also maintains extremely stable attacking efficiency. They have scored in 54 consecutive La Liga matches since the defeat to Leganes in December 2024 - the longest streak currently in the top 5 European leagues.
While Barcelona is sublimating, Real Madrid enters the match with a chaotic atmosphere both on and off the field. The Royal team is almost certain to be empty-handed for the second consecutive season and is going through a period of serious instability.
Alvaro Arbeloa will lead the first El Clasico match in his coaching career. However, his future at the Bernabeu is still very bleak as Jose Mourinho continues to be mentioned as the top candidate for the hot seat of Real Madrid.
Los Blancos also do not have good away form when losing two of their last 5 away matches in La Liga. According to Opta supercomputer, Real Madrid's chances of reversing the situation and winning the championship are only about 0.08%.
If Barcelona completes their goal at Camp Nou, this will be the first time in nearly a century that the La Liga championship is directly decided by an El Clasico match. The last time that happened was in the 1931-1932 season, when Real Madrid won the title after a 2-2 draw against Barcelona in the final round.
Head-to-head record
Although Barcelona is dominating the championship race this season, the recent history of confrontations in La Liga shows that Real Madrid has never been an easy opponent to subdue in El Clasico.
Los Blancos have won 8 out of 12 recent encounters with Barcelona in La Liga, losing only 4 matches. This achievement is equal to the number of victories that Real Madrid has achieved in 32 El Clasico matches before that in the league, where they once experienced a prolonged period of inferiority with only 8 wins, 7 draws and 17 defeats.
Notably, the last 12 El Clasico matches in La Liga have all decided the winner and loser, with no draws. This is the longest El Clasico streak without a draw since 1977-1986, when the two teams went through a streak of 18 consecutive matches always with a winning team.
However, home advantage is still bringing confidence to Barcelona. The Catalan team has won 2 out of 3 recent receptions of Real Madrid in La Liga, twice as many wins as they have in the previous 7 home matches.
Score prediction: Barcelona 2-2 Real Madrid
The match between Barcelona and Real Madrid takes place at 2:00 a.m. on May 11 (Vietnam time).
