The biggest football match in Spain will be held on Sunday night at Camp Nou Stadium, Barcelona's stronghold, where up to 14 new faces may participate in the summit match for the first time, but the return of Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho to this match is attracting attention.
Real Madrid and Barcelona each concluded 6 deals in the summer, while the Catalan club promoted two players from their youth academy to the first team, adding to the match a new batch of players eager to leave their mark in this competition.
Among the new arrivals is Brazilian striker Gabriel Jesus, who joined Barcelona from Arsenal in September.
Jesus told Reuters on Thursday, before the first meeting between the two teams this season: “Barcelona’s match against Real Madrid is, without a doubt, among the biggest matches in the world. It is a real dream to play in the top match for the first time. “I have never hidden my desire to wear a Barcelona shirt one day, and this goal includes playing in the summit match.”
Jesus is no stranger to facing Real Madrid, as he scored 3 times in 4 matches with Manchester City.
He said: “Those were unforgettable encounters in the Champions League, including a goal I scored at the Bernabeu.”
Jesus (29 years old) grew up 8,797 kilometers away in Sao Paulo, and may participate in the starting lineup alongside Xavi Espart, who was born in Barcelona and is a member of the club’s academy. Espart, one of 9 academy graduates in the team's squad, highlighted the importance of the match, whether in the standings or within the framework of the traditional competition.
“The truth is that it will be a brutal war,” Espart told the DAZN platform on Thursday. We will do our best, it is a top match. “You always have to give 100 percent of your effort, and now we have the opportunity to extend our lead and we will fight until the end.”
If he wins, Barcelona will expand the gap separating it from Real Madrid in the league to 9 points. If Real Madrid emerges victorious, it will not only reduce the current gap of 6 points, but will also give the team a morale boost after losing 6 times in the last 7 summit matches against their Catalan rivals.
In contrast to the recent era of Spart in the summit matches, Mourinho (63 years old), who played 27 matches against Barcelona, including 17 summit matches, stands as coach of Real Madrid.
Florentino Pérez, president of Real Madrid, appointed Mourinho as coach for the first time in 2010 to compete against Barcelona, led by Pep Guardiola, and now hopes that the Portuguese will be able to return the Spanish League title to the Bernabeu for the second time.
During Mourinho's first period with Real Madrid, the team fought what could be described as the most heated confrontations in the modern history of top-flight matches, and many cameras will be directed at his every move at Camp Nou on Sunday.
The Portuguese coach only won once in the first 10 summit matches he played, but he did not lose in the last 5 matches he played against Barcelona, achieving 3 victories.
Restoring the winning tone against Barcelona may represent a turning point in Mourinho's second period with Real Madrid, after two defeats in the first 9 matches in the Spanish League, and repeated boos from his fans during the matches that the team plays on its ground.
Antonio Conte, the former coach of Chelsea and Napoli, said on Friday that he is not in advanced negotiations to succeed Michael Carrick as coach of Manchester United, competing in the English Premier League, and described reports that he demanded full control of the team as “unfounded.”
Conte, who won the English Premier League title with Chelsea and also coached Tottenham Hotspur in England, was responding to speculation that he had requested full control of the team, along with financial demands from the struggling club.
United occupies 13th place in the league, and 20th in the Champions League, following a heavy 1-4 defeat against its Italian host Como on Wednesday, which increased the pressure on Carrick.
Conte said in a statement: “My name has been linked to a number of clubs, but there are currently no negotiations at an advanced stage.”
He added about his time in Naples: He won the Italian League title in the 2024-2025 season “after a wonderful and successful period in leadership of Napoli: (I will slow down enough to think about how and when I will return to training. It will be a carefully considered decision, which I will make when I think the circumstances are right. I have seen reports claiming that I have made financial demands and full control of the clubs mentioned, in addition to reservations about what was described as (my strong personality). These reports are baseless, as there is currently no concrete basis for such a thing. These evaluations.
Conte, who last coached Napoli in the 2025-2026 season, said that if a concrete opportunity arises, he will enter into negotiations with the club in question, and “they will look together at the terms of a possible agreement,” taking into account the needs of both parties.
The 57-year-old Italian added: “Until then, any assumptions about my demands and my professional future remain mere speculation and cannot be considered facts.”
In an interview with The Athletic newspaper earlier this month, Conte said he would like to coach a club “that has strayed from its history,” so he could help “restore its sparkle.”
With his defeat against Como, United lost 7 matches in all competitions, and team captain Bruno Fernandes said that his team was in a “defeatist position,” and also questioned the team’s approach, while Carrick apologized for the performance.
Ishaq Hajjar upset his rival Charles Leclerc after he saw that Ferrari had the fastest car in the Singapore Grand Prix this month, pointing out that his Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen would have won by a greater margin if he had been driving the Italian team’s car.
But Leclerc, who finished second in the race behind the four-time world champion by 7.3 seconds, categorically rejected this vision during the American Grand Prix events on Thursday.
"I think it's ridiculous to make such judgments," the driver from Monaco told reporters at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin. Isaac knows nothing about the car we drive, and I, in turn, know nothing about the car he drives.”
Hajjar, who finished the Singapore race in tenth place, confirmed that the Red Bull car is still difficult to drive despite Verstappen winning the last two races.
He said: “In Malaysia, Red Bull was dominant, but I don’t think it was the fastest car in Singapore. In my opinion, if Max had sat behind the wheel of a Ferrari there, he would have won by a greater margin. “I think (Ferrari) was fastest in that race.”
For his part, McLaren driver Oscar Piastri said that Ferrari and Red Bull enjoyed a clear advantage over his team during the recent period.
The Australian said: “It was not surprising that Ferrari showed such strength in Singapore. By analyzing the data, he always appears to be the fastest, or among the fastest, in most turns this season.”
He added: “But he loses a lot on straight lines, whether due to air resistance or engine power, I do not know specifically. We expected Ferrari to be the standard against which performance was measured on other circuits as well, but that was not always the case.”
He continued: “In my opinion, (Ferrari) is very strong, and Red Bull as well. I even think that the two teams were clearly stronger than us.”
He concluded by saying: “I see that (Red Bull) has become the fastest car in a more stable manner in recent weeks, but the balance of power changes from one race to another, and the preference varies according to the nature of each track and race.”
