Copa del Rey Final thread

While Barcelona are still to play Villarreal in the league today, hoping to wrap up the title, Athletic had their last training session before leaving for Valencia. It was open to fans, and 18,000 attended to send their team off

http://www.marca.com/2009/05/10/futbol/copa_rey/1241955077.html

i really want to win this, we could have the double wrapped up in 4 days.

i wonder if pep is going to give the guys that played most of the copa games a chance to start in the final.

i think pinto and bojan deserves a start.

but i would rather bench them and win the cup, which is what i think pep will do, maybe bojan will start in place of Henry with iniesta in midfield.

I think Pinto will start, and possibly Gudjohsen too. Not sure about Bojan.

it would be a pity of those two start and bojan doesn't, he is the top scorer in the comp

Iniesta to miss the final through injury. Abidal also suspended.

I guess Bojan and Sylvinho will start in this one then. We really must win this trophy now, because I don't fancy our chances in the CL final at all now without Andres.

But Athletic will have noticed how tired our players were towards the end of the Villarreal game, and they won't hesitate to make it a high energy game with lots of physical play.

We must hope to get a couple of early goals and then control the play with some sideways passing in midfield, otherwise if they make it very open like Villarreal did yesterday, there could be more pain.

with iniesta out of the game, athletic will be able to draw is into the end to end physical game that they want, because xavi won't have any one to help him control the pace of the game, because keita will be playing 100 miles per hour, which is exactly what athletic want.

if sport as it right then pep will reward pinto and bojan for their hard work in the copa with a start in the final.

busquets and caceres could also start


----------pinto

--alves---caceres--pique--slyvinho


--------------Busquets

-------Xavi------------Kieta/Guddy

-----messi-----eto'o----bojan


could be the starting XI

I have a bad feeling about this one. In any case, should we lose, Bilbao is the team I least would begrudge it.

Its amazing how little confidence some of the Barcelona fans on this board have!

First we were going to get knocked out to Munich, then Chelsea , then a draw against Madrid, now we're going to lose la Copa

Have faith!!

That is a weak - from a defensive point of view - line-up against a full strength Athletic.

kas wrote:

I said I'm pretty sure Puyol will start at CB.

Messiah wrote:Valdés, Pinto,
Alves, Puyol, Piqué, Cáceres, Sylvinho,
Xavi, Víctor Sánchez, Touré, Busquets, Keita, Gudjohnsen,
Messi, Eto'o, Bojan, Hleb, Pedro

I thought you could only have 5 subs in the Copa?

kas wrote:

Messiah wrote:Valdés, Pinto,
Alves, Puyol, Piqué, Cáceres, Sylvinho,
Xavi, Víctor Sánchez, Touré, Busquets, Keita, Gudjohnsen,
Messi, Eto'o, Bojan, Hleb, Pedro

I thought you could only have 5 subs in the Copa?

Really? I didn't realise that. If so, he's probably just taking everyone available and then will leave a couple in the stands.

two will be dropped before kick off, most likely sanchez and perdo

No live Sky coverage

TheCrazy58 wrote:No live Sky coverage

I know, I will have to hack the computer tomorrow night...

This match should really be at the end of the season.

For those with Sky, they're going to repeat the match on TVE Internacional at 11:00pm BST.

toon h wrote:

TheCrazy58 wrote:No live Sky coverage

I know, I will have to hack the computer tomorrow night...

Oooh, I see what you've done there...that's clever

http://www.elmundodeportivo.es/gen/20090512/53701799670/noticia/un-hacker-piratea-la-web-del-espanyol.html




(tbh, it's pretty lame, whichever Barça fan did that )

goltv won't be carrying the match live, WTF

i have big bucks on barca winning, combined with man utd winning, and had newcastle winning on monday, as well as burnley to win. this is a huge multi. you better win.

Is it any Barça win? Or only within the 90 mins?

any barca win, some including extra time and penalties if needs be.

for some reason the odds were really against burney, but i had them to win and to go through, and newcastle had some good odds to win. 3/5 so far with the two burneyl bets and the newcastle ones, if man utd win and barca win, i think i turn £8 (big bucks for a student) into nearly £52

Lineup for Barça is out:

Pinto
Alves-Pique-Toure-Puyol
Busquets-Keita-Xavi
Messi-Etoo-Bojan

I think it makes sense for Pep to play Toure-Pique as much as possible in the buildup to Rome. And the rest of the team is basically what's left after the injuries.

Vamos.

makes sense to play yaya and pique togther to counter the threat of llorente

Olé wrote:For those with Sky, they're going to repeat the match on TVE Internacional at 11:00pm BST.

They also showed the Barcelona pre season matches last summer from the USA and the Gamper match against Boca.

Spanish commentry! I always switch to Spanish commentry on Pro Evo

Under two hours now....

AUPA ATHLETIC!

Jaime wrote:

kas wrote:

Messiah wrote:Valdés, Pinto,
Alves, Puyol, Piqué, Cáceres, Sylvinho,
Xavi, Víctor Sánchez, Touré, Busquets, Keita, Gudjohnsen,
Messi, Eto'o, Bojan, Hleb, Pedro

I thought you could only have 5 subs in the Copa?

Really? I didn't realise that. If so, he's probably just taking everyone available and then will leave a couple in the stands.

Just read on SPORT's site that you can have 7 subs in the final. So Barça's bench is:

Valdés, Martín Cáceres, Sylvinho, Gudjohnsen, Hleb, Pedro y Víctor Sánchez