It’s the eighth ever El Clasico Copa del Rey Final this Saturday night. Real Madrid have the slight advantage in this specific component of this series, having won four of the previous seven meetings. FC Barcelona obviously won the other three. We’ll see if the Catalan Club can knot it up here. Barca comes in with the fitness advantage, as they’ll have fewer key players that are injury doubts here.
Barcelona have a psychological and morale advantage as well, given how their archrivals are currently looking up at them in the La Liga table.
El Clasico Copa Del Rey FYIs
Kickoff: Sat. Apr. 26, 10PM local
Venue: Estadio de La Cartuja, Sevilla, Spain
Preview Material for Both Sides: Team News Starting Lineup Predictions
Additionally, Madrid will not be defending their UCL title; while also watching Barca go on in the semifinals of the competition. So without further ado, let’s get to the lineup predictions. We think this will be a 4-2-3-1 formation for Real Madrid and perhaps a 4-3-3 configuration for Barca.
Although one should not be surprised if the Blaugranes also go with a 4-2-3-1 formation here in this trophy clash. At this point it is kind of splitting hairs.
Starting Lineup Predictions
Barca
Wojciech Szczęsny; Jules Kounde, Ronald Araujo, Inigo Martinez, Gerard Martin; Gavi, Frenkie de Jong, Pedri; Lamine Yamal, Raphinha, Ferran Torres
Real Madrid
Thibaut Courtois; Federico Valverde, Raul Asencio, Antonio Rudiger, Fran Garcia; Dani Ceballos, Aurelien Tchouameni; Jude Bellingham, Rodrygo, Vini; Kylian Mbappe
Paul M. Banks is the Founding Editor of The Sports Bank. He’s also the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He currently contributes to USA Today’s NFL Wires Network. His past bylines include the New York Daily News, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune. His work has been featured in numerous outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, the Washington Post and ESPN. You can follow him on Linked In and Twitter