CONFIRMED
Jose Mourinho has called comparisons between Real Madrid and Barcelona “unfair” ahead of Sunday’s Clasico at Spotify Camp Nou, according to Goal, with AFP corroborating his comments. Barcelona arrive stung by a 4-2 Champions League defeat at PSG, their first loss of the season, but their players insist the plan does not change.
What we know
The fixture is La Liga round 10, Barcelona v Real Madrid, Sunday 25 October 2026 at 21:00 CEST, according to listings from Managing Madrid and Sports Mole.
Mourinho’s “unfair” line comes from Goal’s report, later syndicated under the same headline by Yahoo Sports. AFP corroborates the underlying quotes, and the word “unfair” is Mourinho’s own.
The numbers explain why the comparison stings. ESPN reports that Barça have won all nine of their league games this season and can open a nine-point lead over Madrid with a win. AFP, via Daily Sabah, puts Barcelona on 39 league goals in nine games against Madrid’s 23.
Asked how Barcelona would limit Kylian Mbappé, Hansi Flick said at Saturday’s news conference that positioning both with and without the ball is important, ESPN reports. Goal reports that Flick said he trusted the referees and declined to join the refereeing row before the match.
Both sides are short of key men. Jules Kounde is out with an ankle sprain, according to Flick’s press conference as reported by AFP and other outlets. Dani Olmo was injured in the PSG defeat on 20 October, Sports Mole and 101greatgoals report. For Madrid, Forbes reports that Vinícius Júnior is serving a four-match ban after being sent off against Villarreal for pulling an opponent’s hair.
Barcelona midfielder Fermin Lopez shrugged off Paris. Speaking to Barcelona’s official media channel, in quotes relayed by the fan site Barca Universal, he said the loss was “just one game and three points” and that he did not think Barca played badly. He added that Barcelona must play their usual way and watch the small details, because Real Madrid have players of enormous individual quality. The club original was not retrieved, so these quotes reach us second-hand.
What is rumored
Journalist Santi Ovalle reported on Cadena SER, an established Spanish broadcaster, that Raphinha addressed the dressing room after the PSG loss and urged the squad to move on and focus on the Clasico. Sport, via a secondary site, adds that Rodri then told the squad that if mistakes must be made, it is better they happen at this stage of the campaign. Both details rely on unnamed sources, reach us second-hand and have not been confirmed by the club.
A FootballTransfers headline claims a Barcelona player said Mbappé “can score five if he wants.” This is a grade D claim: the headline is paraphrased, the original interview could not be found, and neither the quote nor the speaker is verified.
A headline snippet from Daily Beirut, a low-profile aggregator with a grade D rating, claims Mourinho will pair Antonio Rüdiger with Ibrahima Konaté and drop Dean Huijsen.
What we don’t know yet
The sources here do not say whether Olmo has any chance of facing Madrid, or how long his absence might last.
Related ESPN and Citizen headlines reference Mourinho commenting on the timing of the Vinícius decision, but those remarks have not been verified, so we are not repeating them.
What it means
Barcelona can turn a perfect league start into a nine-point gap, which would make Paris look like a blip rather than a wobble. Lopez’s message, play your usual way and sweat the small stuff, reads like a squad keeping faith with the system.
Madrid travel without Vinícius and with sixteen fewer league goals than their hosts. That gap is exactly the sort of comparison Mourinho calls unfair, and he has spent a career turning that kind of talk into fuel.
Flick’s answer on Mbappé tells you where the game may swing: Barcelona’s shape when they lose the ball. Without Kounde, that shape gets tested hard. Flick, for his part, is leaving the refereeing talk to others.
