RIAD.- Troubled by his erratic form, the Barcelona will face on Sunday in the final of the Spain Supercup in Saudi Arabia still Real Madrid that plays like a team that seeks to be champion.
Barcelona won 2-0 at health in Thursday’s semifinal in their first win by more than one goal since September and He has 20 games in a row without having a comfortable victory.
“It is an ideal scenario for a footballer, playing for a title against Real Madrid“he warned on Saturday Xavi, who faced Madrid 42 times as a midfielder Barcelona. “We arrived a little less in shape than Madrid, I want to be honest, but when the ball starts rolling everything will be fifty percent.”
Madrid has only one defeat in 27 duels in all competitions this season. The Spanish league leader avenged its only defeat with a 5-3 victory to eliminate the Atlético de Madrid in the other semi-final of the Super Cup on Wednesday.
Barcelona was better than Madrid a year ago in Riyadh, to lift its first title in the era of Xavi and the first since the painful departure of Lionel Messi in 2021.
He Barcelona will now have to find a way to overcome the Real Madrid sin Gaviwho scored and assisted in the previous final, and who suffered a torn ACL in November with the national team.
Xavi He declined to reveal in the pre-match press conference whether he will pack the midfield with four players or go for a three-man attack like before. Health.
John Felix, Ferran Torres and the teenager Lamine Yamal could accompany Robert Lewandowski on the front.
“Regardless of playing with three, four or five midfielders, the idea does not change“, he indicated Xavi. “We want triangulation, numerical superiority, having the ball… This is the idea we have had since (Johan) Cruyff implemented it (at the end of the eighties)”.
Question at Real Madrid:
The big question for Carlo Ancelotti It will be if he gives his second consecutive start to Luca Modric38 years old, or if he leaves it as a change for the complementary part like almost the entire season.
“We are close to a title, the first of the season,” Ancelotti commented. “We are going to try to do what we have to do, which is to try to win”.
The renewed Super Cup with a semi-final and final format debuted in Saudi Arabia in 2020 with a lucrative multi-year deal for the clubs and the Spanish Football Federation.
Source: AP
