Copa Del Rey Preview: Barça - Cultural Leonesa
Monday, 09 November 09, 01:05 PM · Comments (14)
Admittedly it is pretty difficult to get excited about this one. Having won the first leg 0-2 thanks to goals from Pedro Rodriguez if Barça fail to go through to the last sixteen it will have to go down as one of the biggest surprises in the history of the Copa. With some big World Cup qualifiers coming up we will be without Eric Abidal and Thierry Henry as France face Ireland while Chygrynskiy has been called up for Ukraine's games against Greece. Toure Yaya is also on World Cup duty with Ivory Coast even though they have already qualified. Pep Guardiola is also without the services of Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Seydou Keita who both picked up injuries towards the end of the match with Mallorca. Ibra has a pulled muscle which will need a week to recover from while Keita is out for ten days with a ligament injury. Both players should be fit in time for our next important match at Athletic Bilbao on November 21st. Johnathan dos Santos, Andreu Fontas and 18-year-old defensive midfielder Oriol Romeu all trained with the first team today which could signal a place in the squad for tomorrow's game.
These games can be more complicated than they appear as the players from the smaller team give everything on their "big day". We will have to keep an eye on Jito who continues to score all of Cultural goals, having now scored 12 out of 12 of the team's league goals. Despite tickets for the game being as cheap as €5 the kick off time of 10pm will make it complicated for younger fans to take advantage of this. It's a shame because there can sometimes be a surprisingly good atmosphere for this type of game as a lot of people who can't usually afford to attend matches take advantage of the cheaper prices. However, the TV companies dictate the kick off times and with the game being shown on Catalan television there is likely to be an extremely low attendance for the game.
Possible starting XI: Pinto; Alves, Marquez, Fontas, Maxwell; Johnathan dos Santos, Busquets, Oriol Romeu; Pedro, Bojan, Jeffren.
My prediction: Barça 2 Cultural 0
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14 Comments · Add yours
perfecto
Is Messi playing International?
If not this should be the perfect opportunity to give him seven or so days off. Just to eradicate any question of fatigue setting in. That goes for Xavi and Iniesta too.
Just play Pedro, Bojan and the athletic boys tonight. That should still be enough.
I think Bojan could score as well as Pedro.
So my prediction 3-0
P.S. If Henry gets injured again I'm gonna be pissed. Especially with no Barca for a week to soothe the pain.
I noticed some youth/reserve team players being called up. I was wondering whats up with some of the other talented cantera products aka Gai,Muniesa etc.
Are they injured or just not in form at the moment?
LINK
Pep keeps favoring average Biscuits and hardworking Keita over Toure it's beginning to worry me.
He obviously is being bias I can't think of any other reason to start Biscuits ahead of him.
I hope Toure doesn't leave Barcelona would be stupid to let him go... He's been 1 of their best buys in the last 5 years.
I doubt we would have won the treble without him.
@ THE-EVIL-THAT-MEN-DO
Toure has been called away for Internationals.
It's not that Pep is choosing Busquets over Toure because of any sort of bias at all. It's the fact that he needs to ensure that Busquets is going to be capable when Toure is absent during the ACN.
They all appreciate how talented he is I'm sure.
We should be happy that there is such an abundance of talent in the midfield. It's defence and cover for the left wing we need to worry about.
Due to the fact Toure has expressed his wishes for more playing time though. He should get it.
Busquets should just get fifteen minutes subbed at the end of each game to get him prepped up.
There is no plausible reason to start Busquets over Toure . End of story !!
If you think that a suitable replacement for Toure whilst at the ACN for two months will be a
unfit,
unprepared,
and unused Busquets.
Then winning nothing at all this season will be the.... End of story!!
Toure didnt say anything, its his agent stirring up shit again. He does this every few months and its comes to nothing. Toure has played every big game this season. He has only played 2 less than Messi anyways so I dont think there is anything at all to this.
Yes, Keita has played more, but that is only because Iniesta has been injured. Busquetz HAS to get playing time regularly so that when Jan comes around he is fit, sharp and playing well. We lose both Keita and Yaya so having Sergio ready is absolutely crucial. Quite frankly i would be very surprised if Yaya didnt understand that.
Good win tonight, some fine goals, albeit against poor opposition. Bojan and Messi both scored lovely goals. Messi looked a lot brighter, I hope he is playing himself out of his "funk" before the Inter/Madrid games. Now the crappy international break, lets all hope everybody comes back healthy, last thing we need is injuries before the 2 huge games coming up...
Hilal has Messi got to go for internationals?
Yes he does, but at least he doesnt have to travel far. Argentina play Spain in a friendly (in Spain i think) and then I think they also play Nigeria in a firendly. I really hope Maradona doesnt play Messi the full 90 in both games.
Messia is not going on international
break, Argentina and Barca have an agreement that he does not play in friendlys!
He will have 11 days rest until the Bilbao game.
messiah is right, messi isnt allowed by contract to go play in friendlies. we can thank laporta for that.
That's great news. Then Messi can take that break I was talking about before. Give him some time to gather himself. Then come back and smash the League out.