BarcelonaThe Copa del Rey, naughty, has been fed up with pairing the two teams that have cared for him the most lately. Barça visit Athletic Club again in San Mamés in a one-way tie (9.30pm / DAZN and Telecinco) in which Xavi’s team will try to lick the wounds of the Super Cup and win in a stadium where it is difficult to do so. It is a duel that forces the history books to be dusted off, to recover the names of Ramallets, Iribar, Kubala, Gainza, Eto’o and Aduriz. The first duel between the two teams was in the 1902 Coronation Cup, when a team called Biscay, full of Athletic players, defeated Barça in Madrid. It has rained a lot since then, with 43 Cup matches played between them, 23 with a Catalan victory.
In Bilbao, where they love the Cup madly, it hurts not to have won it since 1984. And if they haven’t, it’s because of Barça, who defeated them in the finals in 2009, in 2012, in 2015 and 2021. Now, in 2020, the Basques smiled thanks to a goal in the last minutes of Iñaki Williams in the quarter-final match. Athletic, victims like Real Madrid’s Barça in the Arab Super Cup, will all come out. Marcelino tactics involved an interesting 4-4-2 combination. One of the players asking for a pass, Unai Vencedor, will be out, while the young Nico – Iñaki Williams’ younger brother – may still have to wait for his moment on the bench. As is the case at Barça, a new batch of youngsters is enthralling the lions’ fans, such as striker Oihan Sancet, who already knows what it’s like to score a goal for Madrid this season.
Despite the defeat against the whites, Barça arrives in Bilbao with their heads held high, proud of their good game. And positive, seeing how little by little key players like Pedri and Ansu return. To win in Bilbao would be to certify that finally the worst moment has already happened. If they manage to concentrate without paying attention to the Dembélé series that is so difficult to understand on and off the pitch, Barça have a lot of options to get out on the pitch. With few options, Xavi has had to rule out players thanks to new faces, such as Ferran Torres and Dani Alves. The Vallès coach has the safe injuries of Sergi Roberto and Samuel Umtiti, but they would not have played much. On the other hand, the loss of Luuk de Jong, sanctioned, and the doubts due to Memphis Depay’s inconvenience do hurt. The center-forward position, then, should be for Ansu or a Martin Braithwaite returning after the September injury to his left knee. “Every game is different and we have to rotate. We now have a lot of midfielders, of a very high standard, and that is a luxury. We don’t just look at the performance of the last game to decide who plays. Pedri is 100% better than Ansu because he has been down for less time. Ferran Torres may have missed the pace of competition the other day, but this week has been very positive and tomorrow will be important “, said Xavi in the preview.
In goal, as happened in Linares, should play the Brazilian Neto, who already defended the Barça team in the previous Copa del Rey qualifier against Linares, and who has many numbers to start again. In a stretch in which the calendar is rising, Barça feel they can send a message to their rivals in the Cup.
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