Hola Madridistas.
The Sport360 team will be in place to bring you the latest Real Madrid news on Friday. We’ll bring you all the gossip, features and everything else from around your favourite club.
18:47 – Croatia stars Modric and Rakitic face off in El Clasico
The best of friends become best of enemies this weekend.
Real Madrid‘s Luka Modric and Barcelona‘s Ivan Rakitic were World Cup heroes with Croatia this past summer but will now face off on opposite sides in the first La Liga El Clasico of the 2018/19 season on Sunday.
Read Sooraj Kamath’s piece on the best of friends who will be the best of enemies for 90 minutes on Sunday.
17:25 – Lionel Messi absence won’t help Real Madrid, says former Barca star
Montoya (l) made 67 appearances for Barca between 2010-15.
Barcelona will be without Lionel Messi for El Clasico for the first time since 2007, but La Masia graduate Martin Montoya still fancies his boyhood side to be victorious against a Real Madrid side in horrendous form.
Read more on what the Brighton defender had to say about the Clasico contest.
17:00 – Vinicius Junior available for El Clasico after ban overturned
Julen Lopetegui has something of a selection dilemma ahead of El Clasico as talented Brazilian teenager Vinicius Junior is available after a ban for getting sent off playing with Castilla was overturned.
The 18-year-old scored but was later sent off in Castilla’s 1-1 draw against Celta Vigo last Sunday after receiving two yellow cards, one for arguing and the second for a supposed dive.
Read more on this story here.
16:30 – Five interesting facts about El Clasico you didn’t know
Barcelona and Real Madrid go head to head in El Clasico at the Camp Nou on Sunday.
Read the full piece here.
13:00 – Two days until El Clasico
11:00 – Vinicius Junior happy to feature for Castilla
One of the major talking points at Real Madrid this season has been Vinicius Junior, who has only played 12 minutes of first team action and has been featuring most weeks with the club’s second team, Castilla.
But for all the criticism of his lack of game time for Julen Lopetegui’s side, the 18-year-old has revealed that he called for opportunities with Castilla as he would rather be plying his trade in the third-tier rather no competitive action at all.
