Fermín López: We Are El Clásico Favourites Despite PSG Defeat

Fermín López believes Barcelona are favourites against Real Madrid in Sunday's El Clásico despite their Champions League defeat to Paris Saint-Germain.

Hansi Flick's side were beaten 4-2 by the reigning European champions on Tuesday. The Catalan club tried to stay in the game through second-half goals from Xavi Espart and Lamine Yamal, but could not stop a decisive late surge from Luis Enrique's team.

Fermín, however, is confident the setback will not hurt Barcelona ahead of El Clásico, and says recent results against Madrid give him confidence.

Under Flick, Barcelona have won 6 of their 7 meetings with Real Madrid in all competitions (1 draw). In the 15 Clásicos before the German coach's arrival, they had managed only 4 wins (1 draw, 10 defeats).

Barça also sit 6 points clear of Madrid at the top of LaLiga, and have become only the second team in history to win their first 9 league games, after Real Madrid in the 1968-69 season. No team in LaLiga history has ever won the first 10 games of a season.

"You never want to lose any game, especially in the Champions League. But at the end of the day, it's just one game and 3 points dropped," Fermín said.

The young star continued: "Now our full focus is on El Clásico. It's a hugely important game, and we really want to get back to our winning habit.

I don't think we played badly against Paris. They're a great team too and they made things difficult for us, but we weren't far from winning.

We need to know how to control Real Madrid, but I think if we put our own style on the pitch properly, we'll have a big chance of winning.

We have to play our usual game, keep up our good tempo and pay attention to the small details, because they have players of very high individual quality.

It feels like time is passing really slowly, because this is a game I've always loved playing.

Ever since I was a child I dreamed of playing in El Clásico. This will be my second Clásico at Camp Nou, so I'm very excited and I can't wait.

I scored at the Santiago Bernabéu before, but we didn't win, and that left a bittersweet taste. Hopefully I'll score at Camp Nou on Sunday and we'll win. That's the most important thing for me."