A preview of tomorrow's Copa del Rey semi-final second-leg El Clasico clash between La Liga leaders FC Barcelona and Jose Mourinho's Real Madrid at the Camp Nou





Real Madrid vs Barcelona LIVE ========== http://goo.gl/6Qn9a







Real Madrid vs Barcelona LIVE ========== http://goo.gl/6Qn9a




For the fifth time this season, FC Barcelona prepare to take on Real Madrid, although this time there is a place in the Copa del Rey final up for grabs. Should Barcelona keep Los Blancos off the scoresheet, they will progress to the final for the second successive season – no matter the result at the Camp Nou – while Real Madrid can guarantee their place in the final with a victory, or a high scoring draw. However, even after four Clasicos in 2012/13, there is little to choose between the two sides. Of course the Blaugrana are sixteen points clear of Real Madrid in the race for La Liga, but they haven’t been able to extend this dominance to the Clasico, notching just one win in their last six against Cristiano Ronaldo and co. – not that we should place too much importance on a victory achieved in the first-leg of an aggregate defeat in the Supercopa de España.


REAL MADRID

Pepe noted that Real Madrid (who almost have a full complement of players to choose from, bar Iker Casillas and one or two others) will have to remain true to their style tomorrow if they are to progress to the final, so expect a thoroughly combative match at the Camp Nou. If Barcelona can survive the opening onslaught of Madrid pressure, they will fancy their chances, but concede an early goal and well, that’d make things unnecessarily difficult...

BARCELONA

While B team starlet Alex Grimaldo suffered a season-ending knee injury at the weekend, the first team managed to stay healthy over the course of the last match-day and even welcome back Adriano who missed the last two games with a thigh complaint. Even with a squad of 23 to select his starting XI from, Jordi Roura would arguably be best served by simply choosing the same ten outfield players that started against AC Milan – more on that later.

Jose Manuel Pinto will start in goal for the Blaugrana and surprisingly enough, the veteran Spaniard boasts a better record than Valdés having conceded just six times in his eight appearances this season. That includes four matches where the Zamora-winning keeper has kept a clean sheet; not bad for a back-up.