Barcelona begin February looking to book a spot in the Final Four of this season’s Copa del Rey when the Blaugrana travel to Albacete, the team that famously knocked out Real Madrid in the last round, for a huge quarter-final tie.
Here’s how we think Hansi Flick will line up his troops for Tuesday’s battle:
Defense
Barça won’t have a lot of recovery time between Saturday night’s win over Elche and Tuesday night’s Cup tie coming off a very busy January, so it’s safe to assume Hansi Flick will rotate his team
to face a La Liga 2 side in this one.
We expect Joan Garcia to stay in goal as Flick really loves the security that the goalkeeper provides at the back, but we think we’ll see plenty of changes in the back four: Ronald Araujo may finally get his first start since returning to the team last month, and we also think João Cancelo will get a start at left-back in place of Alejandro Balde.
The other full-back spot should go to someone other than Jules Kounde as a precaution after the Frenchman suffered an injury scare at the weekend, with Eric Garcia likely to deputize there if Kounde is indeed rested. We also think Gerard Martín will get the nod at center-back alongside Araujo, with Pau Cubarsí getting a much-needed rest in this one.
Midfield
The double pivot of Marc Casadó and Marc Bernal struggled together in the last Cup tie away to Racing Santander last month, so we think only one of them will start in this one alongside the more experienced (and talented) Frenkie de Jong, and we’re choosing Bernal given his form as of late. Fermín López is expected to start in the number 10 role to give Dani Olmo a chance to rest for at least 45-60 minutes, and managing Dani’s minutes is very important as he finally seems to be getting a consistent run of injury-free games.
Attack
Raphinha has been carefully managed over the last month and had an injury scare of his own at the weekend, so it’s more than safe to assume he won’t start this one and that Marcus Rashford will get the nod on the left wing. Robert Lewandowski will likely lead the line ahead of Ferran Torres just to make sure the Shark doesn’t play too many minutes having just come back from injury, while Lamine Yamal is playing too well to be dropped right now and will continue to start on the right wing.
Possible XI: Joan; Eric, Araujo, Martín, Cancelo; De Jong, Bernal; Yamal, Fermín, Rashford; Lewandowski (4-2-3-1)
How do you think Barcelona should line up against Albacete? Let us know your thoughts, predictions and teams in the comments below!
