MADRID, 4 Apr: Xavi is on the verge of leading Barcelona back to the Copa del Rey final and repeating a feat last achieved when Pep Guardiola was in charge more than a decade ago.
\nBarcelona, the 2021 champion eliminated in the round of 16 last year, can return to the final with just a draw against Real Madrid at the Camp Nou on Wednesday but a win would make it four straight triumphs over its rival for the first time since Guardiola won five in a row from 2008-10.
\nThe Catalan club has never defeated Madrid four times in a row in the same season. It beat Madrid four times in 1982-83 but not in consecutive matches.
\nBarcelona lost 3-1 to Madrid in the first \u201cclasico\u201d of the season in the Spanish league, but since then it won 3-1 in the Spanish Super Cup final, 1-0 in the first leg of the Copa semifinal and 2-1 in the other league match.
\n\u201cI think they are hurt and will be wanting to get revenge after losing the last three games,\u201d Xavi said Tuesday. \u201cBut they always compete well.\u201d
\nThe last time Barcelona had won three in a row was in 2011-12. Madrid won five consecutive against its rival in a period from 2020-22. Guardiola\u2019s winning run included a 6-2 rout at the Santiago Bernab\u00e9u Stadium and a 5-0 triumph at the Camp Nou.
\nBarcelona\u2019s most recent league win against Madrid left the club close to its first league title since 2018-19. It has a comfortable 12-point lead over Madrid with 11 matches remaining.
\n\u201cThe clasico is the most important match, for the fans, for the players,\u201d Mad-rid coach Carlo Ancelotti said. \u201cThere is a very big rivalry and this is an important competition. We need to play a complete ma-tch because things didn\u2019t go well in the last ones.\u201d
\nAfter winning the Spanish Super Cup, advancing to the Copa final would give Xavi a chance to lead Barcelona to its second title of the season. It would come after a gloomy period in which it struggled amid a financial crisis that led to the departure of Lionel Messi to Paris Saint-Germain.
\nAncelotti is also hoping to keep alive Madrid\u2019s chances of winning another trophy in addition to the UEFA Super Cup and FIFA\u2019s Club World Cup. Madrid is also alive in the Champions League, where it faces Chelsea in the quarterfinals.
\nMadrid hasn\u2019t won the Copa since 2014, when it beat Barcelona the last time it made it to the final. Barcelona is the competition\u2019s most successful club with 31 trophies. Its triumph two years ago marked the team\u2019s last title with Messi in the squad.
\nBarcelona has succeeded in the recent \u201cclasicos\u201d under Xavi with a formation that includes four midfielders and Gavi in a more advanced position. The coach could also opt to use three forwards, with Ansu Fati or Ferran Torres playing up front along with Raphinha and Robert Lewandowski. Franck Kessi\u00e9, who scored the late winner in the last league \u201cclasico,\u201d would drop from the lineup in that scenario.
\nXavi still won\u2019t be able to count on four important players because of injuries \u2014 Ousmane Demb\u00e9l\u00e9, Pedri, Frenkie de Jong and Andreas Christensen.
\nAncelotti will have all of his regular starters available with the exception of injured left back Ferland Mendy.
\nKarim Benzema is coming off a hat trick in the team\u2019s 6-0 rout of Valladolid in the Spanish league, and the French striker is among the Madrid veterans who are ending their contracts this season and could be making their last appearance in the \u201cclasico,\u201d along with Luka Modric and Toni Kroos.
\nBarcelona captain Sergio Busquets, the player with a record of 47 appearances in the \u201cclasico,\u201d is in a similar situation as his contract with the Catalan club also expires this season. (AP)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MADRID, 4 Apr: Xavi is on the verge of leading Barcelona back to the Copa del Rey final and repeating a feat last achieved when Pep Guardiola was in charge more than a decade ago. Barcelona, the 2021 champion eliminated in the round of 16 last year, can return to the final with just a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-214296","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214296\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}