Yamal and Mbappe in a fiery confrontation in El Clásico before competing for the “Golden Ball”

Lamine Yamal and Kylian Mbappé are hoping to win the Ballon d'Or on Monday evening, as they are expected to attend the ceremony that will be held in London to award the most prestigious individual award in world football.

But just one day before the ceremony, the two stars seek to shine in a direct face-to-face confrontation in Barcelona.

Real Madrid, led by Mbappe, is visiting Barcelona, ​​the Yamal team, and is six points behind them, as Barcelona, ​​the holders of the Spanish League title in the past two seasons, leads the standings after nine rounds, and therefore, the pressure is on Madrid, which occupies third place behind Atletico Madrid, not to move away further than that, to say the least.

Although journalists' voting for the Ballon d'Or ended last September, the fans' focus was increasingly focused on the award in the period leading up to Monday's ceremony, and this makes the "El Clásico" match an ideal stage for Yamal and Mbappe to present their concluding arguments before the court of public opinion. Other notable candidates for the award include last year's winner Ousmane Dembélé, Harry Kane and 39-year-old Lionel Messi.

Yamal is off to a great start this season after helping Spain win the World Cup last July, defeating Mbappe's France in the semi-final, and Messi's Argentina in the final. The 19-year-old has scored 10 goals and provided 10 assists in the Spanish League and the Champions League, in addition to four other goals with Spain so far this season.

At the same time, Mbappe appears as decisive as ever in front of the net, as the striker has scored 12 goals in the same number of matches, and he, along with Belgian goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois, is contributing to keeping an unstable Madrid in close pursuit of Barcelona.

Hate is a strong word, even in football. But if there's one person Barcelona fans don't like very much, it's Jose Mourinho, who begins a second spell with Madrid this season.

In his first spell with Madrid (from 2010 to 2013), the Portuguese coach led the rivalry between the two biggest clubs in Spain to new heights thanks to his team's aggressive tactics and his own verbal skirmishes with Barcelona's coach at the time, Pep Guardiola.

Mourinho even resorted to physical contact with himself, in the famous incident when he poked the eye of the late assistant coach Tito Vilanova during a quarrel between the two sides.

All of this means that we can expect to hear more booing than usual when Real Madrid takes to the field on Sunday.

Barcelona had won all 11 matches it played this season until it collided with incandescent Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League on Tuesday, and a late double by the European champion led to Barcelona being defeated 4-2 despite Yamal scoring another wonderful goal.

Otherwise, German coach Hansi Flick's team presented a series of terrifying offensive performances.

Brazilian star Rafinha scored 14 goals in his new role as a striker, while the team scored 50 goals in total to top the list of top-scoring clubs in Europe, including scoring five or more goals in six matches.

Given Mourinho's preference to rely on counter-attacks, taking advantage of Mbappe's speed, Barcelona is expected to control possession and press to score early and often.