Barcelona's Shadow XI vs. Real Madrid's Shadow XI: Who Would Win?

Both Barcelona and Real Madrid are famed for their current stars, the players who make the side no matter what the occasion, how their form has been or who else is playing well.

The likes of Neymar, Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and Toni Kroos are all guaranteed starters for their respective sides...until those rare occasions when the managers, Zinedine Zidane of Real and Luis Enrique of Barca, deem a fixture low-key enough to warrant giving them a rest.

For those games, the manager brings in the second string—not usually all at once, and not for the biggest matches—to give them minutes and rest the big stars.

But what if both sides had to rely on their second string, rather than merely giving them game rotation? What if they had to go into El Clasico and face off against each other...with shadow sides?

Ineligible XIs

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First up, the first-choice XIs. We've taken the usual big names, the guaranteed starters and, where there's a case for debate in one or two instances, the player who has featured for the most minutes in all competitions this season.

That means Jordi Alba sneaks in on the left of Barca's 3-4-3 system, even though he doesn't usually start when they use that formation, and Raphael Varane gets the nod to start at centre-back for Real Madrid in their 4-3-3.

FCB: Marc-Andre ter Stegen, Javier Mascherano, Gerard Pique, Samuel Umtiti, Sergi Roberto, Sergio Busquets, Ivan Rakitic, Jordi Alba, Luis Suarez, Neymar, Lionel Messi.

RMA: Keylor Navas, Dani Carvajal, Sergio Ramos, Raphael Varane, Marcelo, Toni Kroos, Luka Modric, Casemiro, Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema, Gareth Bale.

In our second-string XIs featuring none of the above players, both sides line up 4-3-3.

Goalkeepers

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FCB: Jasper Cillessen

RMA: Kiko Casilla

Judging on this season or previous career history, there's only one winner: the Barcelona man.

Netherlands international Jasper Cillessen has been an excellent and able deputy for Ter Stegen, performing with admirable consistency whenever called upon. He's strong in one-on-one situations, has superb distribution and decent reflexes.

In short, he's a pretty good goalkeeper who'd do a good job as No. 1, even if he isn't elite as Ter Stegen is becoming.

Casilla has always been capable, but not close to top-tier. He's steady, is a good shot-stopper and is brave, but there are too many failings in his game to be considered by fans or the club as a new No. 1 if Keylor Navas is replaced—as he showed earlier in the season when the Costa Rican was injured.

Defensive Resilience

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FCB: Aleix Vidal, Marlon, Jeremy Mathieu, Lucas Digne

RMA: Danilo, Pepe, Nacho, Fabio Coentrao

A real mix of abilities here.

At full-back, Barcelona have better attacking thrust and first-team quality, particularly with left-back Digne, but in the centre, it's comfortably Real Madrid who have the better pairing and more individual quality.

Nacho has arguably been Real Madrid's best centre-back this season, and Pepe claimed that title last year, without question. They've paired each other before, they are both first-team quality and have a mix of traits: aerial ability and aggression from the Portuguese man, better pace and ability to move the ball into midfield from the Spaniard.

Marlon may go on to prove himself a worthwhile addition for Barcelona in future, but his contribution has been negligible so far and Mathieu is an accident waiting to happen these days.

With Danilo and Coentrao's form, Real are likely to give up chances...but that's nothing new, in fairness, even when the first XI are in place.

Midfield Control

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FCB: Andre Gomes, Denis Suarez, Andres Iniesta

RMA: Mateo Kovacic, Isco, James Rodriguez

Now, here's a real battle. Any of these players would be starters at any other club, and often are in Barca or Real's XI, particularly Isco and Iniesta, with the latter only missing much of this year because of age—he turns 33 in May—and injury.

As always, it's a two-pronged question over the midfield: Which trio can control play and create chances for their attack, and which have the work rate, endeavour and defensive resilience to protect the back line?

Barcelona's probably has the slightly better balance, but Real Madrid's triumvirate are the better players, technically and tactically, overall. Andre Gomes has been the No. 6—the Busquets, the Casemiro—this season on a number of occasions, and although he's not a natural with defensive positioning and awareness, he is at least able to hold his ground.

Mateo Kovacic is a far superior midfielder, much more aggressive than Gomes and more dynamic in the defensive role, but he lacks positional discipline.

It's a real conundrum here, and the midfield control could swing both ways depending on how much effort Isco and James put into their game off the ball, but overall, it's perhaps just about Real Madrid who have the edge, due to athleticism, individual level of talent and knack of producing in the final third.

Attacking Impetus

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FCB: Rafinha, Paco Alcacer, Arda Turan

RMA: Lucas Vazquez, Alvaro Morata, Marco Asensio

Less of a dilemma to choose the better trio here: Real Madrid have pace, skill and, most importantly, a lethal goal threat. Barca would, strangely, be looking to their wider players to find the net more than Alcacer, never a scorer of huge volumes at Valencia even when he did play every week.

There's no doubt that Rafinha, Alcacer and Turan would have great work rate and some good approach play, linking with the midfielders, but is there a predatory presence in the penalty area who might get a brace? Probably not.

But Morata could.

Asensio could score or create a couple, and Lucas might be the quickest on the pitch, an outlet on the counter, hard-working in tracking back and capable of opening up the defence, too.

Conclusion

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It's a tough one to call, but we're giving the likely win to Real Madrid.

Barca have got the better balance between defensive and middle thirds, but their attack is hit or miss, particularly when it comes to putting the ball in the net, while Real Madrid still have a certain amount of star quality in that regard.

It's likely that Los Blancos would have to take one approach only: Attack is the best form of defence. But if they do that, with Morata, James and Isco all of starting quality, they have the capacity to outscore Barcelona, which would be some feat.

We'll likely never see this match take place, but if it were to happen, we'd expect heavy Barcelona domination in spells...but frustrating domination, with too little end product, and not quite enough at the back to keep Real Madrid at bay.