Madrid, May 9 (IANS) FC Barcelona entertains Real Madrid in the Camp Nou on Sunday night in a game that could decide this season’s title race, but where a great deal more is on the agenda.

Barcelona welcomes its historical rival with an 11-point lead over Real Madrid and with just 12 points left to play for this season, so a draw in front of its own fans would see Hansi Flick’s side confirmed as La Liga winners for the second consecutive year.

However, recent events at Real Madrid have almost served to push the title into the background after the story broke on Thursday that midfielders Fede Valverde and Aurelien Tchouameni had a dressing room fight that ended with Valverde taken to the hospital in need of stitches, reported Xinhua.

Valverde has been diagnosed with cranioencephalic trauma, which could sideline him until the end of the season and the club has fined the players 500,000 euros each for the incident, but not suspended them, which means Tchouameni could play at the Camp Nou.

The fight comes amid rumors of divisions in the Real Madrid dressing room and probably ends any hope coach Alvaro Arbeloa had of continuing as coach past the end of the season.

Arbeloa has also got to deal with a long injury list with Ferland Mendy, Rodrygo, Eder Militao, Dani Carvajal and Arda Guler all out, meaning that losing Valverde is also a big setback in sporting terms.

Kylian Mbappe is also a doubt as he struggles to recover from a hamstring injury amid suspicions that he is trying to avoid taking any risks ahead of the World Cup finals.

Morale is completely different at Barcelona, where Andreas Christensen and Lamine Yamal are the only two injuries for Flick.

Yamal is obviously a major loss, but so far, Barcelona has responded well without him, with Ferran Torres, Fermin Lopez and Marcus Rashford all offering alternatives in attack.

Pedri seems to have benefited from seeing his workload reduced to just one game a week, while Marc Bernal offers another option in central midfield.

Barcelona will go into the game as clear favorites, although Flick will be anxious to avoid overconfidence against a team that has the players to cause problems for his high defensive line.

Some Real Madrid players, such as Vinicius Jr and Antonio Rudiger, are certain to give everything to try and salvage something from a disappointing season, but this game will be a tough test of morale at Real Madrid, which at the moment seems to be at its lowest point in a very long time.

–IANS

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