Real Madrid Goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois Set to Miss El Clasico

Later on today (Sunday, the 25th of October), Real Madrid will face Barcelona at the Camp Nou for the first Clasico of the 26/27 season on match day ten of the La Liga season. 

Coming into the game, the team news was looking pretty good from a Los Blancos perspective. Dani Olmo, Eric Garcia and Jules Kounde are unavailable for the hosts, leaving them with just two central defenders available for the game.

Meanwhile, for Jose Mourinho's side, Eder Militao has returned from his six month injury to play a part, whilst key men like Kylian Mbappe and Jude Bellingham are all good to go. The only key absence looked to be Vinicius, who is having a poor season in any case, and there was a chance Yan Diomande would have started over him even if available. 

However, that is not the case. Indeed not, as it has this morning been confirmed that Real Madrid number one, Thibaut Courtois, will miss the game as he has come down with flu. 

The club's official statement says: "Courtois is out at the last minute due to a flu process for tonight's match between Real Madrid and Barcelona, corresponding to the tenth match day of La Liga. In his place, Illia Voloshyn enters the squad." 

Well, not good news at all. In general, Andriy Lunin is fine, but he is a huge downgrade on Courtois, as most keepers would be. In the UEFA Champions League quarter final against Bayern Munich, he let a Harry Kane effort from outside the box squirm into the bottom corner. He also failed to command his area for Aleksandar Pavlovic's header from close range early on in the second leg. 

That said, Lunin does have a decent record against Barcelona, winning three of the four Clasico's he has previously played in. His first Clasico was in October 2022, yielding a 3-1 win for Real Madrid. Then the 4-1 Supercopa victory in January 2024, before the 3-2 La Liga win in April 2024. He won all three of his first Clasicos. 

Let's hope it is more of the same tonight, rather than his most recent appearance in the fixture, a 4-0 loss this time two years ago. Several times this season (and over the years), Courtois has absolutely saved Real Madrid when not playing so well. It is a big task to expect the same of Lunin, but hopefully he is up to the task. We shall see.