Barcelona
Real MadridJosé Mourinho's first Clásico since coming back to Real Madrid takes him to the ground where his first one went horribly wrong. Barcelona vs Real Madrid on Sunday 25 October is LaLiga Matchday 10 at Spotify Camp Nou, and Hansi Flick's side arrive having won all eight of their league games. Madrid are fourth, six points back. Kick-off is 21:00 in Spain, 20:00 in the UK and 4pm on the US East Coast, on the morning the clocks go back across Europe.
If you only want the game, our LaLiga streams hub will have a free HD stream on the night, no signup needed.
Camp Nou, Barcelona. Photo: Oh-Barcelona.com, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
A rivalry that started in 1902
The first meeting was on 13 May 1902 in the Copa de la Coronación, and Barcelona beat Madrid FC 3-1. Counting official matches up to 10 May 2026, the clubs had played each other 264 times. The record is absurdly level: 106 wins each and 52 draws.
The extremes are less tidy. Madrid's 11-1 in the semi-final of the 1943 Copa del Generalísimo, played on 13 June, is still the biggest margin in the fixture, and people still argue about it because of the political climate around that game.
Lionel Messi is the Clásico's record scorer with 26 goals. Cristiano Ronaldo and Alfredo Di Stéfano are joint second on 18, which says something about how rarely one player gets to run this fixture for long.
| Date | Competition | Result | Why we remember it |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17 Feb 1974 | LaLiga | Real Madrid 0-5 Barcelona | Cruyff's side run riot at the Bernabéu |
| 7 Jan 1995 | LaLiga | Real Madrid 5-0 Barcelona | Madrid pay it back |
| 2 May 2009 | LaLiga | Real Madrid 2-6 Barcelona | Guardiola's first season |
| 29 Nov 2010 | LaLiga | Barcelona 5-0 Real Madrid | Mourinho's first Clásico |
| 26 Oct 2025 | LaLiga | Real Madrid 2-1 Barcelona | Mbappé and Bellingham score |
| 11 Jan 2026 | Supercopa final, Jeddah | Barcelona 3-2 Real Madrid | Raphinha scores twice |
| 10 May 2026 | LaLiga | Barcelona 2-0 Real Madrid | Barça clinch their 29th title |
Flick has had the better of it
Under Flick, Barcelona won all four Clásicos in 2024/25, including 4-0 at the Bernabéu and a 4-3 in the spring. Madrid ended that run last October with Kylian Mbappé and Jude Bellingham scoring in a 2-1 home win, then lost the next two: the Supercopa final in January and the 2-0 at Camp Nou in May that retained the title for Barcelona. Marcus Rashford's free kick and a Ferran Torres finish did the damage that night. Neither of them plays for Barcelona now.
BarcelonaReal MadridMourinho, round two
That 5-0 in November 2010 was his introduction to the fixture as Madrid coach, against Guardiola's Barcelona. He recovered well enough. Madrid beat them 1-0 in the 2011 Copa del Rey final, and his 2011/12 team won 2-1 at Camp Nou on the way to a 100-point league title.
He came back on 11 June 2026, thirteen years after his first spell ended, on a contract to June 2029. The season before had been a mess: Xabi Alonso left in January and Álvaro Arbeloa's caretaker spell finished without a trophy. The brief now is short. Stop Barcelona winning the league.
Federico Valverde is captain after Dani Carvajal's departure, and the summer brought in Ibrahima Konaté, Bernardo Silva, Marc Cucurella, Denzel Dumfries and the young winger Yan Diomande.
Barcelona vs Real Madrid this season
Barcelona have played eight, won eight, scored 34 and conceded seven going into the October international break. Raphinha leads LaLiga with 12 goals and Lamine Yamal has seven.
They have done that after a big summer turnover. Robert Lewandowski left for the Chicago Fire, Ferran Torres joined PSG and Rashford went back to Manchester United, while Anthony Gordon, Karim Adeyemi, João Cancelo, Gabriel Jesus and Rodri arrived. Most squads need a couple of months to settle after that much change. This one apparently didn't.
The club moved back into Camp Nou in November 2025. The current licence allows 62,652 spectators while work continues towards a final capacity of around 105,000.
| # | Team | P | GD | Pts | Form |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Barcelona | 9 | 30 | 27 | WWWWW |
| 2 |  Atlético Madrid | 9 | 11 | 22 | WWWWW |
| 3 |  Real Madrid | 9 | 14 | 21 | WWLWW |
| 4 |  Real Betis | 9 | 2 | 19 | LWDWW |
| 5 |  Real Sociedad | 9 | 0 | 16 | WWWLW |
Madrid have 18 points. Both league defeats came away from home, 1-0 at Real Betis and 2-1 at Atlético Madrid. Mbappé has seven league goals but picked up a knee problem on France duty in late September.
The bigger worry is Vinícius Júnior, sent off against Villarreal on 10 October for pulling Nathan Saliba's hair. Reports put the likely ban at two to three matches. If they're right, he misses Sunday.
Each side has a league game first: Barcelona go to Betis on 17 October and Madrid host Sevilla the next day.
How I think Sunday goes
Mourinho will probably set Madrid up the way he always did for this game: compact, happy to let Barcelona have the ball, looking to break quickly through Bellingham and whoever leads the line. It's a sensible plan with an obvious problem. Barcelona have kept four clean sheets in eight league games, and Raphinha and Yamal give them goals from both wings. Without Vinícius, Madrid's counter-attack also loses its quickest runner.
I'd expect a tight first hour and Barcelona to pull away late, 2-1. A Madrid win at Camp Nou wouldn't stun anyone who remembers 2011/12, but form, home advantage and the suspension list all lean the other way.
Where to watch
Real Madrid's official site confirmed the 21:00 kick-off. In the United States, where ESPN holds the LaLiga rights, the game has been reported for a free broadcast on ABC, with Spanish-language coverage on ESPN Deportes.
You can also watch Barcelona vs Real Madrid free on DAMITV in HD, with nothing to register. The Barcelona live stream and Real Madrid live stream pages both go live before kick-off. Spanish speakers have their own previa en español, which goes through the individual battles across the pitch.
