El Clasico: Barcelona vs Real Madrid combined XI with no Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo

The duo have dominated this fixture during the last decade, but this weekend sees the first Clasico since 2007 without either star

The first Clasico of the 2018-19 season takes place on Sunday, with neither Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo involved for the first time since 2007.

For the past 10 years the two have dominated the fixture, but with Messi’s fractured arm and Ronaldo having joined Juventus in the summer, neither will take the field at Camp Nou this weekend.


So now, both sides must find a way to win in the world’s most fiercely-contested fixture without the two footballers who have dominated the global landscape in the past decade.

Barcelona enter the clash topping La Liga, but the Blaugrana have won just one of their last five league fixtures.

Real Madrid head to Catalunya with Julen Lopetegui clinging onto his job after a dismal recent run, with three defeats in their last four league games.

They currently sit seventh in the table, and now the ex-Spain boss needs the three-in-a-row European champions big-game players to pull it out of the bag in another big game - or else he faces being sacked by Florentino Perez after just four months in charge.


But even without Messi and Ronaldo, the encounter features almost £1bn worth of talent, including the likes of Luis Suarez, Philippe Coutinho, Gareth Bale and Sergio Ramos.

Which got us to wondering: if you had to pick, right at this moment, based on form, fitness and everything else, right at this moment what would be the No.1 composite starting XI?

Gareth Bale salvaged a point for Real Madrid last term in Barcelona