Real Madrid and Barcelona will go face-to-face at Santiago Bernabeu Stadium in Madrid on Matchday 9 of the 2022-23 La Liga season on Sunday, October 16, 2022. The Blaugrana are now atop La Liga and will head to the Spanish capital as the league's best team due to a superior goal differential.
Despite their league-leading position, their play of late has been lackluster, highlighted by a 1-0 defeat and a 3-3 tie against Italian side Inter in the UEFA Champions League Group Stage. On the other hand, a late header from Antonio Rudiger helped the Whites salvage a 1-1 draw against Shakhtar Donetsk on Wednesday.
After losing to the Catalans by a score of an incredible 4-0 back in March during the previous season, Real Madrid will be out for payback this weekend. However, Carlo Ancelotti's squad has been dominant against their arch-rivals in recent years, winning four of the five head-to-head matchups.
The reason Barcelona will wear different shirt sponsor for El Clasico
Similarly to March when neither side was seen wearing their signature jerseys, this time Barcelona will don a slightly modified version of their well-known shirt. Due to the four-year jersey sponsorship arrangement signed between the Catalan club and the streaming behemoth at the start of this season, the Spotify emblem has been prominently featured on the majority of Barcelona's uniforms this year.
Spotify's first collaboration with a soccer club might be a game changer in terms of jersey sponsorship, as the music streaming firm has hinted at numerous innovative techniques they would be pursuing during the duration of the agreement. It was said that throughout the season, Barcelona will likely have a variety of sponsor logos on their jerseys.
This weekend's Clasico will be the first time that a different sponsor has appeared on the Blaugrana jerseys since the collaboration with Spotify began, as Drake's OVO Sound emblem replaces Spotify's. The Canadian rapper's iconic owl silhouette logo, which he has previously utilized for his clothing line and record company, has been selected to replace the Spotify logo in honor of his record-breaking 50 billion Spotify plays.
"Our alliance with Spotify goes beyond a mere commercial relationship. It is a strategic relationship through which we seek to bring together two worlds that can arouse emotion - namely music and soccer," remarked Juli Guiu, vice president of marketing at Barca.
