Date: Wednesday, April 16 Venue: Mestalla, Valencia Kick-Off: 20:30 BST Spanish giants Real Madrid and Barcelona clash in the Copa del Rey Final at Valencia's Mestalla stadium tonight, with both clubs looking to get their respective seasons back on course.
Team News
Real Madrid are without leading goalscorer Cristiano Ronaldo with the forward still sidelined by the hamstring injury that has ruled him out of his side's last three games. Brazilian fullback Marcelo is a doubt, but defensive colleague Sergio Ramos is fit after recovering from a neck injury. Barcelona have fitness concerns over defensive trio Gerard Pique (hip), Marc Bartra (hamstring) and Carles Puyol (knee), who are all said to be serious doubts. Coach Gerardo Martino could again be forced to play midfielder Sergio Busquets at the back - as he did in the 1-0 defeat against Granada last Saturday.
Key Stats
Real Madrid have beaten Barcelona 90 times in official matches, with 89 wins for Barca and 48 draws. Lionel Messi has scored 21 goals in 'Clasicos'. The four-times World Player of the Year is the record scorer in the fixture ahead of Real's Alfredo Di Stefano on 18. Real have not conceded a single goal en route to the Copa del Rey Final. These sides last met on 23 March this year. Messi scored a hat-trick as Barca won 4-3.
Likely Line-Ups
Real Madrid Casillas, Carvajal, Ramos, Pepe, Coentrao, Alonso, Modric, Bale, di Maria, Morata, Benzema Barcelona Pinto, Alves, Mascherano, Adriano, Alba, Busquets, Xavi, Iniesta, Messi, Fàbregas, Neymar
Match Preview
Real Madrid and Barcelona will be looking to get their respective seasons back on track with a morale-boosting victory in the Copa del Rey final at the Mestalla this evening. The two Spanish heavyweights, usually accustomed to dominating Spanish football, find themselves trailing La Liga leaders Atletico Madrid and have suffered underwhelming campaigns. Barca in particular are struggling, both on and off the field. They have now lost their last two games after being dumped out of the Champions League quarter-finals by Atletico before the damaging 1-0 league loss to Granada at the weekend. The Catalans have also been hit by a transfer ban by Fifa for signing under-age players and the pressure will be on coach Gerardo Martino to deflect some of the negative press here. He will be buoyed by the absence of Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo, whose side have also faced big questions after scraping past Borussia Dortmund to stay in Europe by the skin of their teeth. Real lost 2-0 in Germany last week after putting in a lackluster performance and will again be without the talismatic Ronaldo as they seek to avenge last month's 4-3 defeat to Barca. Both sides have injury woes with Gerard Pique, Marc Bartra and Carles Puyol also unlikely to feature, but I still think Barca will have too much for Madrid here. Prediction: 1-2 source -- bbc
Joseph is an accredited football journalist and has interviewed nearly all of the current 20 Barclay's Premier League managers. He is also a correspondent for Bleacher Report and has written for Caught Offside and Give Me Football.
