El Clasico LIVE SCORE: BAR 0-0 RMA, Match Begins as Barcelona LOOK to avoid another major title race exit, Real Madrid SEARCH for ways to not repeat first leg blunder
El Clasico LIVE Score: Barcelona vs Real Madrid LIVE Score: Copa Del Rey LIVE – The Copa Del Rey semi-final between Barcelona…
El Clasico LIVE Score: Barcelona vs Real Madrid LIVE Score: Copa Del Rey LIVE – The Copa Del Rey semi-final between Barcelona and Real Madrid is underway. Both Barcelona and Real Madrid meet each other for the fifth time this season. Barcelona have a 1-goal lead over Real Madrid going into the semi-final second leg from Eder Militao’s own goal in the first leg. Both teams won their last matches in La Liga by big margins. However, Barcelona’s 9-game unbeaten run at home does give them a confidence boost. Follow Copa Del Rey LIVE Updates on InsideSport.IN.
Barcelona XI: Ter Stegen; Araujo, Koundé, Alonso, Balde; Kessie, Busquets, Roberto; Raphinha, Lewandowski, Gavi
Real Madrid XI: Courtois; Carvajal, Militão, Alaba; Valverde, Modric, Kroos, Camavinga; Rodrygo, Benzema, Vinicius Jr.
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Barcelona won the last El Clasico in La Liga by a 2-1 margin at home with a late injury-time goal from Franck Kessie. They also won their last match against Elche by a 4-0 margin with a brace from Robert Lewandowski and 2 more from Ferran Torres and Ansu Fati. This has put their point gap in La Liga to 12 points from the second-placed Real Madrid. Barcelona had an early exit from both the Champions League and Europa League, so they will be more focused on winning the Copa Del Rey title.
About being labelled as the favourites ahead of the El Clasico, Xavi said during the pre-match press conference, “I think they’ll be set on getting revenge because they’ve lost the last three games against us. They’re hurt. But they’re a team that always competes so it doesn’t change much.”
He added, “We might try something different to surprise them. I don’t think they will. They have a very clear idea about their game and they do it very well… They have every chance of winning and are very good at games like this where they need to mount a comeback. I still think they’re the favourites. They are very hard to beat over two legs.”
Real Madrid have only one El Clasico among the four this season which happened back in October, 2022. However, they did win their last game against Real Valladolid by a whopping 6-0 margin where Karim Benzema scored a hat-trick in 7 minutes with 3 more goals from Rodrygo, Marco Asensio, and Lucas Vazquez. They might now have the confidence, but will still have to give a tough fight to progress to the final with history being in Barcelona’s favour.
During the pre-match press conference, Carlo Ancelotti was asked about surprising Barcelona. He said, “You can surprise with small details. It’s difficult for a team to change the system when you always train with the same system. So I don’t recommend a change… With a change of system, you can surprise yourself and that doesn’t suit us.”
On the importance of the match he said, “The Clasico is always the most important match. For everyone. And that’s because there is a very important rivalry. It’s a game that allows us to play a final and we’ll do everything we can to win it.”
Barcelona Copa Del Rey Form
W W W W
Barcelona Form in All Competitions
L W W W W W
Real Madrid Copa Del Rey Form
W W W L
Real Madrid Form in All Competitions
L D W W L W
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100% focused on #ElClásico pic.twitter.com/VxDqEdFyYo
— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) April 4, 2023
