Valverde wants Clasico at Nou Camp

Barcelona boss Ernesto Valverde is adamant the season’s first Clasico encounter with Real Madrid should be played at the Nou Camp as planned. The showdown between the two giants of Spanish football is always the first one that the respective sets of fans look for when the fixture list comes out, and they are due to do battle on October 26.
However, La Liga have proposed moving the match to Real’s Bernabeu ground due to ongoing political unrest in Catalonia, while another option is to move the fixture to December in the hope things in the region have settled down by then.
Pro-independence politicians have called for a rally on October 26 in support of those jailed for their part in the 2017 referendum and declaration of independence.
That could lead to possible confrontations outside and inside the ground, and the authorities may well take action to avert trouble.
However, Valverde believes the match should not be switched despite the “strange” week in Barcelona. “There has been a lot of chatter about that game,” he told reporters on Thursday. “There was the possibility of changing the order of matches and playing the game at Madrid first, but we don’t see that.”
Barca return to league action on Saturday when they travel to Eibar, while Los Blancos are away to Mallorca.
The Catalans are two points and one place behind Zinedine Zidane’s men after the first eight games and it looks set to be another two-way battle for Spanish top-flight honours this term.