One of the most awaited La Liga fixtures till date this season between Barcelona and Valencia has been shifted to Saturday now with the kick off scheduled at 22:00 CET at the Mestalla.
The Defending Champions of the King’s Cup or the Copa Del Rey, Barcelona have drawn minnows Cultural Leonesa in the last 32 of the competition. It will be a 2 leg affair with the first game away in Leon on October 28th and the return leg on November 10 in the Camp Nou.
Bring it On!
The Pre Season is Over! Its time to start the season with Barcelona’s first tournament – Spanish SuperCopa!
The Spanish SuperCopa features FC Barcelona and Athletic Bilbao, who were runners up in the Copa Del Rey last year. Generally the match is between the La Liga Champions and the Copa Del Rey winners, but Barca’s historic treble ensures that the Spanish SuperCopa this year is a rematch of last year’s Copa Del Rey final which Barca won 4-1.
Although the Super Cup is not perhaps the most prestigious domestic trophy, both teams will be wanting to start the season with a title – Barca to maintain last year’s phenomenal success and take the first of a possible six competitions they are involved in, whilst Bilbao are searching for their first title since 1984 when they last won this competition – their only Super Cup against seven for Barca.
Squad News
The forward line of Barca seems drastically depleted with the likes of Messiah and Ibrahimnovic surely out. So it will be upto the likes of Bojan to shoulder the responsibility with King Henry, who was included in the squad at the last moment. 2 more big names are missing from our squad – Iniesta and Marquez, who still havent recovered from their respective injuries.
Joaquín Caparrós is faced with rather fewer selection headaches – Toquero, Amorebieta and Iraizoz have all been doubtful this week, but have finally been passed fit to play, with just Javi Martínez unfit for the Basque team’s first test of the new season.
Now the first leg of this tie is in San Mames, which has been a tricky stadium for Barca in the last decade. With a slightly depleted squad, the responsibility lies firmly with the youngsters in the squad to prove their mettle and cement a permanent place possibly in the starting XI.
Match Prediction
Athletic Bilbao 1-2 FC Barcelona
