Real Madrid Beat Barcelona 2-1 in El Clásico — Mbappé Brace Ends Barça’s Perfect Start

RESULT: Real Madrid win El Clásico 2-1 at Camp Nou

Real Madrid beat Barcelona 2-1 at the Spotify Camp Nou on Sunday, 25 October 2026 (played at 1:00am PKT on Monday, 26 October in Pakistan) in the first El Clásico of the 2026/27 LaLiga season, Matchday 10. Kylian Mbappé scored both Madrid goals — a brace that ended Barcelona’s perfect 9-0 start to the league season and cut the gap at the top from six points to three.

How the goals happened

Madrid struck first four minutes before half-time, and fortuitously: Barcelona defender Gerard Martín’s clearance struck Mbappé from close range and flew into the net for 1-0 in the 41st minute — Mbappé’s 10th league goal of the season. Barcelona hit back in the 61st minute when top scorer Raphinha, fed by Pedri inside the box, found the far corner to make it 1-1. The winner came in the 87th minute: Eduardo Camavinga’s run created the opening and Mbappé finished clinically for 2-1, too late for Barcelona to respond despite five minutes of added time.

What the result means

Barcelona suffer their first league defeat of the season — and their 23-match winning run in home league games is over. Real Madrid become the first side to beat the league leaders in LaLiga this season, and the title race is wide open again: a Barcelona win would have stretched the gap to nine points; instead it is three. It is also a landmark night for José Mourinho, winning his first Clásico in the Madrid dugout since March 2013. Vinícius Júnior missed the match through suspension, as previewed below.

Read on for the full pre-match preview — team news, predicted lineups, head-to-head record and how to watch in Pakistan — which remains below.

The first El Clásico of the 2026/27 season takes place on Sunday, 25 October 2026, with Barcelona hosting Real Madrid at the Spotify Camp Nou. Kickoff is at 9:00pm local time in Barcelona — which is 1:00am on Monday, 26 October in Pakistan. In Pakistan, the match streams live on BEGIN, LaLiga’s exclusive broadcaster for the country. It is a genuine title-race six-pointer: league leaders Barcelona are a perfect 9-0-0, six points clear of third-placed Real Madrid, who arrive in Catalonia without the suspended Vinícius Júnior.

By Imran Javed — Updated 26 October 2026

El Clásico: Key Facts

What’s at Stake: A Six-Point Swing

Clásicos are always about pride, but this one carries serious weight in the title race. Barcelona sit top of LaLiga with a flawless record — nine wins from nine — and a six-point cushion over their oldest rivals. The mathematics are simple: a Barcelona win stretches the gap to a daunting nine points; a Real Madrid victory cuts it to three and blows the race wide open.

The contrast in momentum makes it even more intriguing. Barcelona arrive having suffered their first defeat of the entire season in midweek, a 4-2 Champions League loss to Paris Saint-Germain. Real Madrid, meanwhile, have won four matches in a row, including a midweek thrashing of RB Leipzig, and are finally starting to look like a team under Jose Mourinho, who took charge this past summer.

There is history in this fixture too. Last season, Madrid won the first Clásico of the campaign — but the fallout from that game, including Vinícius Júnior’s furious reaction to being substituted, unravelled Xabi Alonso’s short era. Alonso was dismissed a couple of months later, Alvaro Arbeloa’s rescue mission failed, and Madrid finished a second consecutive season without a major trophy while Barcelona retained the Spanish title comfortably. Sunday is Mourinho’s first Clásico in the Madrid dugout, and he knows what this fixture can do to a manager’s reputation.

Barcelona: The Perfect Machine (With a Fresh Dent)

Form guide

Hansi Flick’s side have been relentless in LaLiga. Nine matches, nine wins, 39 goals scored and only nine conceded — the best start by any team after nine rounds since the 1997/98 season. Their home record is even more frightening: Barcelona have won 23 consecutive league matches at Camp Nou, a run stretching back to September 2025, with most of those victories coming by two goals or more.

The attack is the story. Raphinha leads the league scoring charts with 12 goals, five clear of the chasing pack, while teenage sensation Lamine Yamal and Fermín López are in red-hot form alongside him. The one warning sign came on Tuesday night in Paris, where PSG exposed cracks in the Blaugrana armour with a 4-2 win — Flick’s first defeat of the season in any competition. How his players respond, five days later, against their fiercest rivals, will tell us a lot about this team’s mentality.

Barcelona predicted XI (4-2-3-1)

Joan García; Koundé*, Cubarsí, Martínez, Balde; Pedri, De Jong; Lamine Yamal, Fermín López, Raphinha; Lewandowski.

*Jules Koundé is a doubt with a left ankle sprain and his availability depends on recovery; Dani Olmo is out for around a month with a left adductor injury. These are editorial predictions — check the confirmed lineups, announced about an hour before kickoff.

Real Madrid: Mourinho’s Test — Without Vinícius

Form guide

Real Madrid’s season has been a tale of two halves. They sit third on 21 points with seven wins from nine, but their away form is a genuine concern: two defeats in four league trips, with goals conceded in four consecutive away games. Close the six-point gap on Sunday and the title race reignites; lose, and Barcelona could disappear over the horizon before November.

Kylian Mbappé has carried the scoring burden, while Arda Güler has impressed as the team’s creative hub and Jude Bellingham is starting to find his rhythm. Record €140 million teenage signing Yan Diomandé has been eased into the side and is hitting his stride at exactly the right time — Mourinho may well trust him from the start in the biggest game of the season so far.

No Vinícius: the suspension explained

The biggest team news of the weekend is confirmed: Vinícius Júnior will miss El Clásico. The Brazilian was handed a four-match LaLiga suspension by the Spanish football federation (RFEF) after his red card against Villarreal — two matches for pulling defender Nathan Saliba’s hair and two more for his aggressive protests towards referee Isidro Díaz de Mera after the dismissal. He came off the bench in that game and was sent off in the 73rd minute.

The ban rules him out of four league fixtures — Sevilla, Barcelona, Racing Santander and Valencia — though it does not affect Champions League matches. Curiously, Spanish daily AS reported that some inside the club view the suspension as more of a solution than a problem, with Mourinho struggling to balance all of his attacking stars into a cohesive game plan. Without Vinícius, the path for Diomandé — who offers more defensive discipline — is clear.

Real Madrid predicted XI (4-2-3-1)

Courtois; Valverde, Konaté, Rüdiger, Cucurella; Bernardo Silva, Tchouaméni; Güler, Bellingham, Diomandé; Mbappé.

Editorial prediction — Vinícius is suspended; confirmed lineups arrive about an hour before kickoff.

Head-to-Head: Nothing Between Them

In LaLiga, the two clubs have met 192 times: Real Madrid have 80 wins, Barcelona 77, with 35 draws. The goals tell the same story — Barcelona 312, Real Madrid 309. Since the 1997/98 season, Barcelona hold the edge in 58 league meetings with 26 wins to Madrid’s 19.

Recent history favours drama: the last 13 Clásicos have all produced a winner (eight for Madrid, five for Barcelona), and the last three meetings were all won by the home side — good news for the Camp Nou crowd. Barcelona have also scored in each of their last 12 Clásicos; the last time they drew a blank was a 2-0 away defeat back in March 2020. Lionel Messi remains the fixture’s all-time top scorer with 18 league Clásico goals (26 in all competitions), while Sergio Busquets holds the appearance record with 48.

Key Battles That Will Decide It

Raphinha and Yamal vs Madrid’s full-backs: Barcelona’s wingers are the most productive wide pairing in Europe right now. With Vinícius absent, Madrid’s left flank will be manned by players more focused on stopping Yamal than attacking — a fascinating tactical trade-off.

Mbappé vs Barcelona’s high line: Flick’s defence holds an aggressive line, and nobody in world football exploits space behind a defence like Mbappé. If Madrid’s midfield can feed him early, this is where the game could be won.

The midfield chess match: Pedri and De Jong against Bellingham, Tchouaméni and Güler is a battle of generations and styles. Whoever controls the tempo controls the Clásico.

Diomandé’s big night: A teenager starting his first Clásico, signed for a record fee, replacing the suspended Vinícius. If he delivers, Mourinho’s gamble becomes a masterstroke; if he shrinks, the spotlight will be brutal.

How to Watch El Clásico in Pakistan

Pakistani fans have a straightforward option: BEGIN holds the exclusive LaLiga broadcast rights for Pakistan (along with Bangladesh and Sri Lanka) on a five-year deal running from the 2025-26 season through 2029-30, showing every top-flight fixture. Stream the match live on the BEGIN app or website — just make sure your subscription and the app are set up before 1:00am.

For satellite viewers, beIN Sports also carries LaLiga coverage accessible in Pakistan. Because kickoff is past midnight local time, the practical advice is simple: set an alarm for 12:45am on Monday, 26 October, or record the match. If you want minute-by-minute updates without video, both clubs’ official apps and websites run live text coverage, and Spanish radio station Radio MARCA carries live audio commentary.

Football fans in Pakistan have plenty to follow this weekend — from Pakistan’s U15 squad for the FIFA U15 World Cup in Azerbaijan to Pakistan’s 87-run ODI win over England earlier in the tri-series. And if you’re planning your weekend viewing around the football, Gladiator II is now streaming on Netflix for the post-match wind-down.

El Clásico FAQs