As Barcelona and Real Madrid meet for a preseason El Clasico, it’s a debut for Hansi Flick in the storied rivalry. Joining Barcelona after they parted ways with Xavi Hernandez during the summer, Flick will now enter the biggest managerial job of his career with high expectations.
Coming off of winning La Liga last season, Real Madrid bolstered their squad by adding Kylian Mbappe which could put even more of a gap between them and their rivals. While Mbappe won’t feature in this match, his presence in the squad now does raise the stakes of this meeting despite it only being a friendly.
Here are our storylines, how you can watch the match and more:
How to watch and odds
- Date: Saturday, Aug. 3 | Time: 7 p.m. ET
- Location: MetLife Stadium — East Rutherford, New Jersey
- TV: None | Live stream: ESPN+
- Odds: Barcelona +145; Draw +270; Real Madrid +145
Storylines
Barcelona: With the majority of their first team squad available for this match, it’s a great chance for Flick to test the squad against top opposition. It doesn’t get much bigger than facing Real Madrid even if it’s a friendly which offers great learning opportunities for younger players who may not get into the regular season version of this rivalry match.
Real Madrid: Unlike Barcelona, Real Madrid has large portions of their squad yet to start preseason training but it still allows the squad an opportunity to show what they can do against stars like Robert Lewandowski. It’s especially big for Endrick who despite his age has big expectations for Los Blancos. This may be the deepest side in the world and El Clasico is a chance to showcase it.
Prediction
The result may not matter but when bitter rivals meet, they won’t want to drop a match even in the preseason. Pick: Barcelona 1, Real Madrid 2