Chapter 368: The Show Begins

Barcelona is located in the northeastern part of the Iberian Peninsula and is the second largest city in Spain, after Madrid, the capital of Spain, and is the first of the Catalan Autonomous Community.

Spain is now facing a huge problem, and this problem comes from Catalonia, because they want to break away from Spain and become a country on their own.

In Europe, politics and football are sometimes closely related, just as Lin Dong met the same city rivals in Rome before, and the two teams are involved in political reasons, so Lazio and Roma will become the hottest derby in Italy.

In Spain, in fact, Real Madrid and Barcelona also have the same background behind them, Real Madrid is crowned with the name of Royal, behind it stands the Spanish royal orthodoxy, and behind Barcelona is the Catalan nation and autonomous conquest, which is a war between countries and peoples.

The Camp Nou is now the stadium with the largest number of fans in Spain, surpassing the 80,000 at Real Madrid's Bernabeu and 100,000.

Speaking of which, from the pitch, the two teams have met once, the Bernabeu started with a stadium with a capacity of 120,000 people, at that time, Barcelona was originally going to build a stadium of 150,000, but in the end it was stopped by conquest.

Although it didn't happen, it has been completed now, and now it's not just the stadium that surpasses, it's the team's results, and Barcelona has been suppressing Real Madrid in recent years.

However, in terms of historical results, the two teams are not equal, and even Real Madrid is still a little ahead, in the past league, the two teams have met a total of 164 times, of which Real Madrid has a lead of 69 wins, 31 draws and 64 losses by 5 wins, and even the two teams are almost the same in terms of goals scored and conceded.

However, in this game, Real Madrid will undoubtedly have a better chance of winning, and this win is at the back, with the successive injuries of Puyol and Pique putting their backline in jeopardy.

Judging from the current personnel in the Barcelona backline, apart from one Mascherano, there is only one left.

The young centre-back, born in 1991, was promoted to the first team by Pep Guardiola in 2010, but until now, he has not had many opportunities to play, and naturally he has not grown much.

For young players, the game is the way to improve, but Batra has no chance at Barcelona at all, so it is conceivable that Batra can improve, and even whether Batra will play in this game is very doubtful.

After all, this is the Spanish national derby, which is arguably the most important test for Barcelona in the first half of the season, and Vilanova dares to put Batra on the pitch in this game?

It was not, and in this game, Vilanova preferred to play the injured Adriano at centre-back with Mascherano than to let Batra play.

When Mourinho got the starting list for Barcelona's game, he felt that the game was stable, because Barcelona's defensive combination in this game can definitely be named the shortest central defender combination in La Liga.

Adriano and Mascherano, one is 172 tall and the other is 174, and with the small bodies of the two, how can they withstand the impact of Lin Dong.

Compared with Barcelona's lack of soldiers, Real Madrid does not have such a problem, Mourinho and Ramos have shaken hands, and the conflict with Ronaldo has also been eliminated by Florentino.

As for tactics, these days are all about preparing for this game, and for this reason, Real Madrid also conducted a closed training session, which caused Real Madrid fans to be very dissatisfied.

Of course, such a game does not need Mourinho to motivate or anything, and Real Madrid knows very well against Barcelona or Atletico Madrid.

"In this game, I don't accept any result other than victory," Mourinho said after glancing around with a grim face in the Camp Nou dressing room.

Real Madrid line-up:

Goalkeeper: Casillas

Defenders: Marcelo, Ramos, Pepe, Arbeloa

Midfielders: Khedira, Alonso, Mesut Ozil

Forwards: Di Maria, Lin Dong, Cristiano Ronaldo

The pure main force of this season, with the compromise of Lin Dong, Benzema and Higuain can only sit on the bench, especially Higuain, Benzema may also rotate frequently, Higuain really has no chance to start now.

Barcelona line-up:

Goalkeeper: Valdés

Defenders: Alba, Adriano, Mascherano, Alves

Midfielders: Sergio Busquets, Xavi, Iniesta

Forwards: Messi, Pedro, Cesc Fabregas

There is no striker lineup, Messi and Pedro are not pure center forwards, Fabregas is even more from the midfield, the aging Villa is not trusted by Villanova, and Sanchez is also on the bench.

Before the start of the game, there was also a small episode, and this small episode made Mourinho furious, and in the tunnel of players, Casillas actually hugged several members of the Spanish national team from Barcelona.

In fact, this situation is not uncommon in the player tunnel, although some players are opponents on the field, but off the field are friends, not to mention that they are also teammates in the national team.

Embracing is not a big deal, not to mention that Casillas has always been committed to making it possible for Barcelona and Real Madrid players to get along.

However, it is Mourinho who is now sitting in the Real Madrid coach's seat, and the madman will never allow his players to be so close to their opponents, you know, the reason why he came to Real Madrid is to beat Barcelona.

However, Mourinho is also very clear that the current Real Madrid is still inseparable from Casillas, and the substitute goalkeeper Adan is not enough to support Real Madrid's goal, and Mourinho can only endure this fire now.

When the players on both sides walked out of the stadium, the boos and cheers at the Camp Nou reached their peak, but how could the Real Madrid fans roar past the 90,000 Barcelona army at the Camp Nou.

Real Madrid fans can only hope that the team can give more strength on the pitch, otherwise, they can only wait until they return to the Bernabeu in the second half of the season to revenge.

Mourinho and Vilanova shook hands for the third time this season, and during the handshake between Mourinho and Vilanova, the curtain was already on the pitch with the whistle of referee Carlos Ferreira.

Barcelona held the ball, and soon, the ball came to Xavi's feet, the Spanish midfield maestro was not in a hurry to attack, Iniesta, Xavi, Fabregas, the three formed a triangle and began to fall on the foot.

The three-man Barcelona formation was 433, but when the game started, Barcelona's line-up was more like 41122, with Sergio Busquets at the end, Xavi in the middle, and Andres Iniesta and Cesc Fabregas in front of Xavi.

However, Real Madrid soon discovered that there is another change in Barcelona's lineup, that is, the position of Busquets, although he appears in the position of the midfielder, but in fact, the fundamental player is the central defender.