Madrid find Real form
Meanwhile, in the German Cup, Bayern Munich must bounce back after defeat
COPA DEL REY
REAL Madrid will arrive at the Camp Nou tomorrow in their best form this season as they take on Barcelona in the Copa del Rey semi-final first leg.
Coach Santiago Solari has given playing time to young talents such as Sergio Reguilon and Vinicius Junior and reaped the rewards with league form having taken them to within eight points of leaders Barcelona and two behind second-placed Atletico Madrid who they play next weekend.
Karim Benzema will lead their attack against Barcelona on the back of scoring six goals in his last four games in all competitions.
He now has 18 goals in all competitions. Only Lionel Messi has more. Barcelona’s team selection will be conditioned by the fitness of Messi. The Argentinian has been left out of first-leg matches in the last two rounds.
Now that Barcelona are in the semi-finals, coach Ernesto Valverde has no intention of resting anyone but will wait to see how his talisman comes through tests on his injured thigh after he picked up a knock in the draw with Valencia.
“If Leo is fine then he will play. We imagine that he does not have a serious problem but we have to wait to see,” Valverde said. The player was due to have tests yesterday. French winger Ousmane Dembele is also hoping to fit. “I hope he will be ready for this week but I’m not sure if it will be Wednesday or Sunday,” added Valverde.
Real coach Santiago Solari was pleased with his team’s form in Sunday’s 3-0 win over Alaves. “We always go into games as the favourite. There is no euphoria around the team and we know that we have to keep playing the way we are,” he said.
In the other semi-final between Valencia and Real Betis, both sides will go into the game on Thursday at Betis’ Benito Villamarin Stadium in fine form.
GERMAN CUP
RECORD 18-time winners Bayern Munich must overcome their latest Bundesliga setback quickly if they want to reach the quarterfinals of the German cup at Hertha Berlin.
Munich slipped seven points behind league leaders Borussia Dortmund when they lost 3-1 at Bayer Leverkusen on Saturday, and their best chance for domestic silverware now appears to lie in the cup. But there they run into a Hertha team that beat them 2-0 in the league in September and wants to repeat this feat, despite losing on the weekend, 1-0 at home to Wolfsburg.
Hertha forward Davie Selke didn’t dwell too much on the setback as he said: “That will be an important match for us and the fans. I am convinced that we will present ourselves in a very different way.”
The other all-Bundesliga duel is between Schalke and Fortuna Dusseldorf who are tied on 22 points in the lowlands of the league which is poor by their standard for Schalke while promoted Dusseldorf are happy to be seven points above the danger zone. The remaining ties are between top and second-tier sides in the form of SV Hamburg v Nuremberg, Heidenheim v Leverkusen and Holstein Kiel v Augsburg; plus a second-division duel between MSV Duisburg and Paderborn.
| dpa