El Clasico as it happened: Cristiano Ronaldo grabs late goal as ten-man Real Madrid overcome Barcelona

Follow all the latest from club football's grandest showpiece at the Nou Camp

Javier Mascherano holds off Karim Benzema (Getty)

¡Hola! Welcome to The Independent’s live coverage of Saturday’s El Clasico.

Zinedine Zidane takes charge of Real Madrid in club football's grandest showpiece for the first time, with his side ten points off their league-leading rivals.

Barcelona have all but tied up La Liga and, given their dominance over the division, even a defeat today would not be that damaging.

If Real do pick up an unlikely win at the Nou Camp however, it could land an important psychological blow on Barça, especially if both sides meet in the forthcoming Champions League semi-finals.

Barcelona vs Real Madrid

Kick-off: 7.30pm

Preview

Five things to look out for at the Nou Camp

Team news

Barcelona: Bravo; Alves, Piqué, Mascherano, Alba; Rakitic, Busquets, Iniesta; Messi, Suarez, Neymar.

Substitutes: Ter Stegen, Bartra, Vermaelen, Sergi Roberto, Arda, Rafinha, Munir

Real Madrid: Navas; Carvajal, Pepe, Ramos, Marcelo; Kroos, Casemiro, Modric; Ronaldo, Benzema, Bale

Substitutes: Casilla, Danilo, Nacho, Vazquez, Isco, James, Jesé

Follow all the action on our live blog below…

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What’s the form?

Barcelona: WWWWWD

Real Madrid: LWWWWW

What does the league table look like?

La Liga table (Google)

What happened last time?

Barcelona 4 Real Madrid 0
La Liga, 21 November 2015

What are the odds?

Barcelona: 7/11

Draw: 37/10

Real Madrid: 43/10

Barcelona 5 Real Madrid 0: 55/1

[2 April 2016 15:29 · Mark Critchley]

¡Hola, mis amigos! Welcome to The Independent's live coverage of today's El Clasico.

The 231st meeting of old rivals Barcelona and Real Madrid is set to kick-off at 7.30pm BST and Mark Critchley (@mjcritchley) will be here covering every kick of any consequence.

We'll have regular updates from around 7.00pm. ¡Hasta luego!

[2 April 2016 16:00 · Mark Critchley]

[2 April 2016 17:00 · Mark Critchley]

[2 April 2016 18:35 · Mark Critchley]

Team news

Barcelona: Bravo; Alves, Piqué, Mascherano, Alba; Rakitic, Busquets, Iniesta; Messi, Suarez, Neymar.

Substitutes: Ter Stegen, Bartra, Vermaelen, Sergi Roberto, Arda, Rafinha, Munir

Real Madrid: Navas; Carvajal, Pepe, Ramos, Marcelo; Kroos, Casemiro, Modric; Ronaldo, Benzema, Bale

Substitutes: Casilla, Danilo, Nacho, Vazquez, Isco, James, Jesé

[2 April 2016 19:01 · Mark Critchley]

So, reactions to the line-ups? Largely as expected, all told, though Danilo may be disappointed to see Dani Carvajal starting ahead of him.For the casual observers who want to see the world's best players compete in club football's greatest showpiece event, all that will matter is that a full complement of both sides' attacking talents will be on display.

Lionel Messi, Neymar, Luis Suarez, Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale, Karim Benzema. Oof.

[2 April 2016 19:02 · Mark Critchley]

 

Dermot Corrigan

@dermotmcorrigan

Thru history Madrid have only won 1 of 18 visits to Barca when blaugrana have lead La Liga - at Les Corts in 1930 (via @2010MisterChip )

6:40 PM - 02 Apr 2016

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[2 April 2016 19:13 · Mark Critchley]

Zinedine Zidane's record in El Clasico as a playerReal Madrid head coach Zinedine Zidane 

P11 W4 D4 L3Three goals scored

[2 April 2016 19:47 · Mark Critchley]

14 min: 14 minutes on the clock means we have another tribute to Johan Cruyff and the whole stadium applauds in memory of one football's true greats.

[2 April 2016 19:49 · Mark Critchley]

16 min: Gareth Bale creeps in behind Barcelona's backline but his low cross has the heat taken off it by Gerard Pique's backside.The centre-back almost slides onto the ball, which allows Bravo to clear up the danger. In truth, Pique's block was so unconventional he was lucky not to handle it.

[2 April 2016 19:51 · Mark Critchley]

18 min: Messi goes close!The Argentinian lines up a free-kick, around 25 yards out, and sees his effort dip wickedly over Keylor Navas' crossbar.