Villarreal-Barça Copa Del Rey Preview
Wednesday, 23 January 08, 11:19 PM · Comments (14)
Jose Edmilson returns to an 18-man squad for tomorrow night's Copa Del Rey quarter-final first leg against Villarreal in El Madrigal (kick off 10pm local time). Eric Abidal will miss the game after bruising his left foot in training, and Ronaldinho is still recovering from his knee problems, though he is looking close to returning.
Barça have unhappy recent memories of their trips to Villarreal having lost two league games in 2007: 2-0 in April and 3-1 in October. Both times Barça were comprehensively outplayed and the only positive point was Bojan Krkic scoring his first league goal in the defeat in October. There have been some signs recently that Barça can play with more concentration and aggression than they showed in October. Manuel Pellegrini's men looked superb on Saturday when they beat Valencia 3-0 and could easily have scored six as they hit the woodwork three times. Nihat is in excellent form and Barça will need to be alert if they want to stop Pires, Cazorla, Rossi and Senna from giving them another drubbing.
Frank Rijkaard will have to decide whether to give new signing Jose Manuel Pinto a debut in goal or stick with Victor Valdés. It would be nice to get a look at Pinto who presumably can be trusted. If not, why did we buy him? Leo Messi will probably return to the starting lineup but it is unlikely that he will play the whole game. Xavi and Marquez should also start the game after being rested at the weekend.
Barça's squad for the game: Valdés, Pinto, Zambrotta, Oleguer, Puyol, Thuram, Milito, Sylvinho, Marquez, Edmilson, Xavi, Deco, Gudjohnsen, Iniesta, Giovani, Messi, Bojan, Henry.
Possible starting XI: Pinto, Zambrotta, Puyol, Milito, Sylvinho; Xavi, Marquez, Gudjohnsen; Messi, Henry, Iniesta.
My Prediction: Villarreal 0 Barça 1 (why not be optimistic, eh?)
Feel free to send your predictions, they can't be any worse than the usual lot.
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0-0
My prediction is a 1-0 away loss. Valdez has to be at the Goal, El Madrigal is not the best place for Pinto to debut for Barcelona. If Barcelona does well in this leg then he can start at Camp Nou.
I think a 1-0 win for Barca.
And i think Pinto will see some game time.
Wow such pessimism! 2-0 Barca.
It will be a very difficult game.
I will be satisfied to lose 0:1 Barca.
Any sort of draw would be very good for us, especially a draw where we get an away goal. Without Et0'o and Ronnie this is going to be a very tough game! Messi is back but he has not played for 5 weeks so he is not going to be at his best yet. Our defence is looking a lot more solid these days so hopefully we should not concede more goals than we score!
14 Comments · Add yours
I am dubtfull over the possible start of Pinto. It's not that I don't trust or believe in his abilities. But the history of Barca - Villareal matches goes far back, and I would think it is reason to believe that we need our best shotstopper, Valdez!
Barcelona 1 - 1 Villarreal
I hope to see both Pinto and Edmilson in this game.