Barcelona hopes to join Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid in the semi -final of the Copa del Rey, while they take on Valencia in their quarterfinals. This competition comes 11 days after the previous meeting of the two meetings, so that the Catalans won a destructive 7-1 victory in the Estadi Olimpic Lluis company.
However, this match must be much closer, especially since it is played in the Mestalla Stadium of Valencia, where the hosts have won their last two games (US Real Sociedad and Celta Vigo). Nevertheless, Barcelona are still favorites to continue to the last four.
According to the sport, Hansi Flick will make a few changes to the side that narrowly defeated Alaves last Sunday. Ronald Araujo, Marc Casado and Robert Lewandowski are expected to fall to the couch, with Eric Garcia, Fenkie de Jong and Ferran Torres who come in the line-up. Wojciech Szczesny, who is now confirmed as the most important goalkeeper of Barcelona, will stay in the team, which means that there is no room for Inaki Pena as a cup alternative.
Valencia is confirmed that they are without the services of Dimitri Foulquier and Hugo Duro for Thursday's competition, and head coach Carlos Corberan appears to make wide changes to the side that Celta defeated last weekend. Stole Dimitriveski, as a cup -keeper, will start, while Max Aarons, Mouctar Diakhaby, Yarek Gasiorowski, Jesus Vazquez, Pepelu, Hugo Guillamon, Fran Perez, Sergi Canos and Umar Sadiq have also been called. In this respect, Crithian Mosquera would be the only player who stays in the team.
If Los Che makes the wholesale changes for this, this would give Barcelona an even better chance of progression. However, the hosts will still make life very difficult for their visitors, because both clubs remain focused on their attempt to take the Copa del Rey title home at the end of the season.
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