Barcelona will face Valencia at Estadio Benito Villamarín, in Sevilla, at Copa del Rey – Final. Barcelona vs Valencia is the match with big interest after their previous matches. Two very great and strong teams will fight for the Copa del Rey Trophy! This year Valencia competed with Barcelona on the same level. Review our thoughts on this match here below.
Barcelona
For Barcelona, if they will win against Valencia, this would be 5th Copa del Rey trophy in a row. This match will be 8th Final in the last 10 years for Barca. Moreover, Barcelona already won 30 times in this tournament which is a great performance and a record. The second club with 23 wins in the final is Athletico Bilbao.
We can call this season for Barcelona successful, despite their bad performance in Champions League after lost against Liverpool. However, they won very confidently La Liga overtaking second place by 11 points. We can say, that this year there was no competition for the first place, as Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid looked much weaker then Catalonians. In LaLiga Barca lost only 3 times. From the other side, Ernesto Valverde made a lot of mistakes this year and looks like Barcelona will search for a new manager. Sometimes it seemed that the team was not ready for the game, it was not motivated enough, or it was not proper football for the players. The basic eleven of the team has not changed for a long time, but playing against Liverpool it seemed that they see each other for the first time.
There are lots of rumors about who will join and who will leave the squad this summer. There are many talks about Coutinho, as he can’t find his place in Barcelona’s trio. Due to Luis Suarez age, Barca needs to find a replacement for him and start preparing him to play in starting eleven. Catalonians already made signings – Frenkie de Jong from Ajax and Emerson from Atletico-MG. Moreover, Spaniards want to strengthen the defense buying from Ajax one more talent Matthijs de Ligt.
Unfortunately, Barcelona will play without many strong and important players next game. For sure Luiz Suarez, Kevin-Prince Boateng, and Rafinha will miss next game. However, Ousmane Dembele, Arthur, Philippe Coutinho, and Marc-Andre ter Stegen are still under question if they will join the squad in the season’s Final game.
Valencia
The same as Barcelona, Valencia lost in Semi-final of Europe Competition, lower by ratings UEFA Europa League. They lost against Arsenal in both matches and this year we will see Champions League and Europa League Finals with 4 top English clubs. Next season Los Ches will start one more time from Champions League group stage as they took 4th place in LaLiga. They played a very interesting season with most draws in the League and only 7 losings. Valencia could finish the season in a lower place, however, won 3 games in a row and took their place on the top. Their game looks very strong this year, especially at home ground.
Marcelinho took Valencia’s wheel 2 years ago and already made a very big impact on the team’s results. They made a big work this season bringing great players to the squad, which gave more confidence and skills to teams game. Biggest signing was 21 years old Goncalo Guedes from Paris Saint Germain for 40m. They strengthen the defense by several players from top clubs, which also affects the team’s defense. In general, they have a strong squad with young, talented and skillful players, which can fight even against Barcelona and proved that already twice this season.
Unfortunately, the squad will play without two important players – Ezequiel Garay and Denis Cheryshev due to injuries.
Barcelona vs Valencia H2H
This season teams already met twice. Both games were in LaLiga and finished by draws. At home Valencia had a chance to take a win scoring early goal, however, Messi equalized the score. At the Camp Nou, Valencia also was in front by scoring two goals, but Messi helped the team once again. As we can see, this season’s Valencia is a very uncomfortable opponent for Barcelona.
Article Image Taken from https://www.barcablaugranes.com/2018/2/1/16956338/barcelona-valencia-team-news-possible-lineups-preview-score-prediction