For Real Madrid, who have just won the Western Super Cup, the Copa del Rey is not a necessity. But for Barca, the Copa del Rey is the last trophy they can confidently compete for this season.
Thursday 003 Copa del Rey quarterfinals
[10] Athletic Bilbao vs Barcelona[6]
Time: 04:30, January 21
In the league, Barca are 17 points behind Real Madrid at the top of the table in the minority round, and this point gap has pronounced Barca's "death penalty" in the league title competition; in the Europa League, whether they can pass Napoli is unknown; so for Xavi and Barca, the most promising thing to fight for this season is the Copa del Rey.
Although Barca's opponent in this game is La Liga's hardline Athletic Bilbao, Barca still have a lot of advantages. The first is physical strength. Barca flew back to Spain the next day after Saudi Arabia's defeat to Real Madrid. Compared to Biba, who just fought for 90 minutes in Saudi Arabia and Real Madrid, barca not only rested for 5 days, but also freed up their hands to solve the problem of the remaining high-paid players in the team.
Yesterday, Spain local time, Xavi publicly issued an ultimatum to Belgian winger Dembele, asking him to make a decision before the end of January, either to renew his contract or to transfer now. Dembele will not be in barca's big squad for any matches until he makes his decision. Although Harvey's tone is tough, local journalist Miguel quickly revealed that this is a hard demand on Harvey by Barca's top brass.
In addition, Depay has been training alone recently, and Fati's physical condition is not up to the standard of being able to play 90 minutes, so Xavi still needs to think a lot about attack. It is also due to the instability of Barca's current squad on the offensive end, the plate in the case of Barca's absolute physical superiority, only made a away concession half of the operation, gave Barca cautious support.
In contrast, the home team Biba didn't think much of it. Looking at their schedule, you can see what the Basque Lions have experienced this week, first Atletico, then Real Madrid, and after two Saudi games, they met Barca. But as coach Marcelino said, "We've been going with the idea of Biba and if you look closely, we've reached so many finals for two consecutive years and we want to win one of them to give to the fans." ”
In this season's league, Biba drew 1-1 at home to Barca, and head coach Marcelino has never lacked exclusive tips against Barca, having previously led Villarreal and Valencia to a good record against Barca. However, this game is too difficult for Biba, and looking at Atletico's performance away to Real Sociedad yesterday, you know that Biba may be doomed tonight.