- Oscar Mingueza — 6
The young centre-back did score a goal, but in terms of defence, Mingueza was far from his best. Oscar had a great short spell while playing at right-back, too bad Ronald Koeman quickly switched him back to the centre.
- Leo Messi — 5.5
The Argentine tried to do a lot of work offensively today, but found little support and couldn't take advantage of his own chances. Unfortunately, Messi failed to convert the few set pieces he had which could have really put us back into the game.
- Pedri — 4
The youngster looked a bit lost in the first half, committing stupid errors and fouls. In the second half, Pedri almost disappeared completely: no sharp passes, no good runs, only a few smart recoveries but that was it.
- Jordi Alba — 3
The full-back got too easily outplayed early in the first half which ended up in Barcelona conceding the first goal. Throughout the match, Alba wasn't too useful either, and his attacking contribution was far below his usual level, although he did assist Mingueza.
- Sergino Dest — 2
The right-back got completely outplayed in the first 45 minutes and it was no surprise that the coach took him off at half time. It's hard to name a single right move from Dest in the Clasico.
Others: Ter Stegen — 3, Araujo — 3.5, Lenglet — 4, Busquets — 3.5, De Jong — 6, Dembele — 3, Griezmann — 5, Braithwaite — 4, Ilaix — 5, Roberto — 4, Trincao — 4.
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Leo Messi equals Sergio Ramos as player with most Clasico appearances in history
By starting in Barcelona's away match against Real Madrid, Leo Messi has equalled Sergio Ramos as the player with the most appearances in El Clasico history, with both players featuring 45 times.
The Blanco captain won't play the match as he's out with an injury.
In his 44 previous matches against Madrid, Messi recorded 26 goals and 14 assists, as per Transfermarkt. The Argentine has so far won 19 Clasicos and lost 14, while 11 matches ended in draws
'Finally, the Clasico hype is back!': fan excited about Madrid duel for 1st time since Ronaldo departure
"Finally, the Classico hype is back! I can't remember the last time, there was so much hype around an El Clasico match," Barcelona fan and Reddit user adilahmed_305 writes.
"The Clasico I last remember was Cristiano Ronaldo's last one. Ever since then, El Clasico has been like any other fixture, where both of the teams were playing poorly before coming up against each other. But this it's totally different, now both the teams are at top of their game."
Besides it being a cut-throat game for both teams, the upcoming Clasico is going to be a vitally important match for another reason — the title race. Currently, Atletico Madrid are the league leaders with 66 points. However, Barcelona and Real Madrid are right behind them with 65 and 63 points respectively.
