El Clásico: Courtois out with flu, Andriy Lunin set to keep goal for Real Madrid

Real Madrid announced on Sunday morning that Thibaut Courtois will miss El Clásico against Barcelona at Camp Nou (9pm local time, 20:00 UTC), some ten hours before kick-off. The Belgian goalkeeper has gone down with flu. “Courtois is a late withdrawal with flu for tonight’s game between Real Madrid and FC Barcelona, matchday ten of LaLiga,” the club wrote in a statement, relayed by Foot Mercato.

Lunin knows the house

Andriy Lunin, 27, is in line to take over in goal. The Ukrainian joined Real Madrid in 2018 and deputised for Courtois twelve times last season, in LaLiga, the Copa del Rey and the Champions League, after the Belgian was injured in the first leg of the last-16 tie against Manchester City. It would be his fifth Clásico and his first official match of the season, notes RMC Sport.

Nothing is official yet: Foot Mercato has Lunin starting, Kicker makes him very likely, RMC Sport keeps the conditional. José Mourinho had named Courtois in his squad of twenty-three on Saturday. To fill the vacant spot, the club called up Illia Voloshyn, 19, who keeps goal for Real Madrid’s third team in the fourth tier: a first call-up to the senior squad.

A lighter Real than planned at Camp Nou

The goalkeeper is not the only absence. Vinícius serves the second game of a four-match ban, upheld after the club’s appeal was rejected on 16 October; Rodrygo, out with an anterior cruciate ligament injury, and Ferland Mendy and Raúl Asencio were missing from the squad published on Saturday. Barcelona are not at full strength either, with five players out:

• Jules Koundé, sprained left ankle, ruled out by Hansi Flick;
• Dani Olmo, muscle injury picked up in Paris, around four weeks out;
• Eric García and Andreas Christensen, thigh;
• Roony Bardghji, knee.

The balance is not the same in the table. Barcelona have nine wins from nine LaLiga games and a six-point lead; a win tonight would stretch it to nine points after ten matches. Real had nevertheless put together four straight wins in all competitions.

Kick-off is at 9pm local time. For the bettor, the morning’s lesson fits on one line: a squad list from the day before is not a team sheet, everything is confirmed at kick-off. El Clásico is not a match covered by Bankroll Atlas: no site price concerns it. 18+. Only bet what you can afford to lose.