El Clasico between Real Madrid and FC Barcelona will take most of the headlines in Spain's La Liga this weekend, but it's not the only game being played. Here are some things to look forward to over the next couple of days.

1 Battle of the forwards

FC Barcelona travel to Madrid with Robert Lewandowski, the top scorer in La Liga, while 17-year-old Lamine Yamal has had an exceptional start to the season, along with Raphinha, who scored a magnificent hat-trick against Bayern Munich on Wednesday night.

Kylian Mbappe is finding his feet at Real Madrid and has six goals in La Liga, while Vinicius Jr netted a second-half hat-trick on Tuesday as Real Madrid came back from 2-0 down to win 5-2 at home to Borussia Dortmund.

Although the Clasico will be about much more than their five forwards, their ability to snatch a goal from virtually nothing is likely to be a decisive factor.

2 Will Barcelona keep a high defensive line?

Although Barcelona won 5-1 at home against Sevilla over the weekend, there were moments in the first half where Sevilla created chances with balls behind Barcelona's defense.

Hansi Flick's side plays with their defense pushed up close to the halfway line, relying on pressure high up the pitch to stop the ball from reaching rival forwards.

This has been effective so far this season, but against a Real Madrid attack containing Mbappe and Vinicius, any mistakes could cost a goal, and Flick will have to decide whether to adapt his tactics and drop his defense a few meters further back, which he did in Wednesday's game against Bayern.

3 Betis is a good test for Atletico Madrid

Atletico Madrid looked as if they had cleared some doubts about their performances last weekend with a 3-1 win at home to Leganes, but the question marks resurfaced with a vengeance on Wednesday as they lost 3-1 at home to Lille in the Champions League.

Atletico Madrid's Antoine Griezmann (L) vies with Lille's Alexsandro Ribeiro during the Champions League football match between Atletico de Madrid and Lille LOSC, in Madrid, Spain, on October 23, 2024. (Photo by Gustavo Valiente/Xinhua)

Atletico took the lead in that match and created enough chances to have sealed the result by halftime, but some poor defending let Lille back into the game.

Diego Simeone will be without defenders Robin le Normand, Cesar Azpilicueta, and Clement Lenglet for the visit to a solid Betis on Sunday, and another poor result will increase the pressure on the coach after a summer of big spending has so far not shown the expected results.

4 Crunch time for Valencia

Monday's 3-2 defeat at home to Las Palmas not only highlighted Valencia's on-field struggles as they slipped to the bottom of La Liga with just six points from 10 games. It also showed the deep divisions in and around the club as hundreds of fans protested at club owner Peter Lim and caused disturbances outside of their Mestalla Stadium.

Valencia now travel to play Getafe, who have just three points more in the table but who have only conceded eight goals.

No side is better at stopping rivals' play than Getafe, but anything other than a win for Valencia would be a disaster - especially as their next rival in La Liga is Real Madrid.

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