The Spanish Clásico. Tomorrow (Wednesday, 21:00), Barcelona and Real Madrid will meet on the soil of Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, for the Super Cup semi-finals. In terms of power relations, there is no question – the Blancos are experiencing a much better season than the Catalans, who are shuffling somewhere in sixth place in La Liga. Still, this is a lone knockout game in which Xavi and his trainees will have to rise above.
In fact, the pit that Barcelona has dug for itself against Real will soon be 3 years old, after Barça’s last victory in the Clásico in some setting was six games ago, somewhere in March 2019 – two years and 10 months from today. By the way, if we go a little further back, Real Madrid was in a similar situation until almost two years ago, when it failed to come out on top with its sworn rival between August 2017 and March 2020.
Another interesting statistic ahead of the battle between the two biggest rivals in Spanish football is that it will be the 15th meeting between the parties as part of the Super Coupe, and the first to be held on a neutral pitch. The match will incidentally take place at the King Fahd Stadium in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, which has 68,752 seats.
Both teams held the traditional press conferences ahead of the game, when alongside mutual respect between the clubs, it was impossible to avoid the bites. Real Madrid tie, Tony Cross Referring to Barcelona’s change under Xavi: “Honestly, it’s hard to say. I haven’t seen them much lately, I have other things to do in life.”
Our coach Carlo Ancelotti Marked the main dangers on the Catalan side: “In addition to veterans like Gerard Pique, Jordi Alba and Sergio Busquets, there are youngsters who stand out like Gabby and Nico. They are players with a great future ahead of them.” The coach added: “We meet a strong team that has faced a lot of problems this season. I would be worried if my players would think we are the favorites, but they are not.”
On the dilemmas at 11: “Danny Carbachel’s participation is one thing, the right wing position is also a dilemma. We have Rodrigo who can play in place of Marco Asensio. Luca Jovic is back as well.”
Inside such, Xavi Referring to Fran Torres’ participation in the match: “We are still waiting for his registration, but it seems to be over soon. This is great news that he (Torres), Pedry and Anso Patti are here with us, they will contribute a lot to us.”
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