PBP: 12/13 Copa del Rey 1/4 2nd Leg | Málaga CF v FC Barcelona | 24 Jan 2013 [R]

Thursday, the 24th of January 2013

| BARCELONA (CEST), 22:00 | LOS ANGELES (PDT), 13:00 | MONTREAL( EDT), 16:00 | LONDON (BST), 21:00 | MELBOURNE (EST), 08:00 (NEXT DAY)

Convert to your local time

Stadium

La Rosaleda

Stadium Info

Previous Meetings

Wed 16/01/13 CDR Barcelona 2 - 2 Málaga

Sun 13/01/13 PRD Málaga 1 - 3 Barcelona

Mon 23/01/12 PRD Málaga 1 - 4 Barcelona

Sun 22/05/11 PRD Málaga 1 - 3 Barcelona

Mon 17/01/11 PRD Barcelona 4 - 1 Málaga

.

.

.

Mon 23/03/09 PRD Barcelona 6 - 0 Málaga

It's a big day for Barcelona. We head to the Costa del Sol, needing to gain a positive result (which is most likely a win here) in order to advance to the semifinals of the Copa del Rey to face either Valencia or arch rivals Real Madrid. We didn't manage to get such a great result at home in the first leg, where a below par performance was compounded by the agony of conceding a goal in the 90th minute from Ignacio Camacho which earned the Andalusians a well deserved draw at Camp Nou.

Three days later, and we suffered the same way, although the 90th minute goal that time was a winner that completed a comeback from 2-0 down for Real Sociedad at Anoeta. Now after a week which saw the retention of our Copa title put under serious questions and oversaw our first league defeat of the season at the 20th attempt, we now know that we need to get back on track on Thursday night if we are to remain in the dogfight for a major title and keep ourselves alive in all remaining competitions for another few weeks.

Everyone should be available for us, apart from Eric Abidal, Marc Muniesa, and Sergi Roberto (B team player). For Malaga, everyone who played the last two games against us is more or less ready to play. The pitch however will not be in great condition as their manager Manuel Pellegrini has already complained about, saying that the pitch was like a ice rink in Malaga's 1-1 draw at home to Celta Vigo at the weekend. Hopefully it won't affect either team's game too much, but there are good chances that it could especially since the conditions won't be exactly great either to match the poor state of the pitch.

My lineup:

Pinto

Alves -- Pique -- Puyol -- Alba

Xavi -- Busquets -- Cesc

Pedro -- Messi -- Iniesta

Hopefully the team will stay alive in the cup after Thursday night, but we have a difficult examination for us ahead. We need to go out there smelling blood, with the great attitude we've seen so often this season, and with a desire to win at all costs. We must not let Malaga pass us.

Tot el camp

és un clam

som la gent blaugrana

Tant se val d'on venim

si del sud o del nord

ara estem d'acord, ara estem d'acord,

una bandera ens agermana.

Blaugrana al vent

un crit valent

tenim un nom el sap tothom:

Barça, Barça, Baaarça!

Jugadors, seguidors,

tots units fem força.

Son molt anys plens d'afanys,

son molts gols que hem cridat

i s'ha demostrat, i s'ha demostrat,

que mai ningu no ens podrà torcer.

Blaugrana al vent

un crit valent

tenim un nom el sap tothom:

Barça, Barça, Baaarça!

.

.

.

Visca el Barça

Yes, that's the lineup we are most likely to see. Biggest question maybe if Adriano could bump Alves. Sort of wish we saw closer to that lineup in the first leg. But then again it was almost that lineup which lost this weekend (albeit after Pique was red carded). More happily we won there 1-3 just a week and a half ago, and all we need is a win or to score at least 2 goals and not lose.

Tough test ahead.

That said, I believe if we score twice, we're close to being good. Score three times, and I don't see us bowing out. Can we score twice, three times? I believe so, but everyone must be sharp, finish their chances and focus. It's one of Barca's strenghts that when it's a big match, we are able to step, and that's what I believe will happen in this match as well.

Would like to see us scoring the opener, and the sooner the better.

Squad list: Valdés, Pinto, Alves, Piqué, Cesc, Puyol, Xavi, Villa, Iniesta, Alexis, Messi, Thiago, Mascherano, Sergio, Pedro, Jordi Alba, Adriano, Song, and Tello

So Villa IN while Cuenca, Montoya, Bartra, Jonathan dos Santos, Muniesa and Abidal all stay in Barca.

I completely agree. We need goals.

Not that he is going to start.

I want Villa to start too, but over who? We need Pedro in there while Cesc and Iniesta are too hot lately to drop for someone who's just returned from a little spell on the sidelines.

IMO over Pedro, who shouldn't be thought as untouchable starter at this point.

That said, obv Villa isn't starting. But I'd hate to see us needing a goal and having 30 minutes left, and subbing in Alexis/Tello over Villa to Pedro.

Why should Pedro not be considered an untouchable when considering what he brings to the table and is clearly the best winger in the current team?

And there is no guarantee that Villa won't start. os brings up a good way we could play and it's very much possible, even though I think Cesc will get the nod.

Well, I don't think he is clearly the best winger. I think he is good, starter-worthy player, but all I'm saying is that he hasn't played like a player who should be thought as an automatic/undisputed starter. He brings a lot to the table, sure, but given the automatic starters in attack and midfield are Messi, Xavi, Iniesta and Busquets, it means Pedro is in direct competition of minutes against Cesc and Villa (and others), and I think Pedro isn't "clearly" the best option in all kinds of scenarios.

That said, happy with a luxury problem like this: good to have quality depth.

He has played like a good, start worthy player. The main thing is for him to help create from the wing, provide width, press and help cover the right side when the fullback goes forward, and pitch in with some goals when possible. He's done all that, he's more of a proper winger these days than what he used to be. He was more of a inverted wingforward before, which is why he got so many goals. Tito has altered his role a bit and it's worked very well for him this season.

Cesc and Villa don't compete with Pedro for a starting spot because whenever those two have started, Pedro was still in and isn't affected by their presence in the team, they don't play his position. He competes with Alexis and perhaps Tello and he is the best player this season out of the three. That's why I also said clearly, Villa is more of a forward played out on the wing rather than being an actual winger which Pedro is.

And yeah, it's good to have quality depth, for sure.

Agreed, Pedro is solid and very valuable and contributes in many ways. Never questioned that.

I dunno. I mean when we have an important match (a match where we don't "rest" anyone), we basically always play Messi, Iniesta, Xavi and Busquets. Then, there are two spots left for the rest, no matter what their roles (forward/winger/midfielder/whatever) are. Pedro, Villa and Cesc (and others) compete for those minutes. Of course, they are different and don't play the same role primarily, but I think it's too far said that they don't compete against each other. I mean it's not like one Barca player plays only one position, and is in competition only against the other dude who plays that specific position (well, same players are more or less like that: Valdes, Pinto, Xavi, Pique etc.).

Agreed that Pedro is better than Alexis and Tello.

Right, but like I said, Cesc or Villa competing for a spot has never put Pedro into question. Pedro is the automatic right winger choice most of the time, while Villa and Cesc compete for a spot depending on where Tito wants to put Iniesta. If Andres is in the center, it's either Villa/Alexis/Tello to start on the left wing. If he's on the wing, then Cesc/Thiago will start in midfield. It'd be kind of unfair to say Pedro competes with those two for a spot in the team when considering that Cesc doesn't play at right wing while Villa only started once there (away to Mallorca, didn't do as well as he does on the left).

I know you rate Pedro highly, I don't get why some people don't, but I don't think his position in the team is under threat by anyone other than Alexis or Tello or maybe Villa but only in very few scenarios.

I dunno. I mean sure, he doesn't play LW and thus gets minutes easier. But there can be all sorts of attacking trios that exclude Pedro, and all the players that feature in possible trios compete against Pedro. Those are Messi, Tello, Villa, Alexis, Cesc, Iniesta and Cuenca. Of course, given there aren't too many RW specialists in Barca other than Pedro, he ends up in the "winning three" often, and rightly so.

What is significant also is our players changing positions. Like when you have Messi as the middle man and, say, Cesc on RW, they change positions all the time - that's another reason players other than RWs compete with Pedro for minutes.

I'm loving this debate. Will Pique play tomorrow? I think he should take some time to be with his son.

He'll have time. He'll get rested this Sunday because of his one game suspension in the Liga, so it's important to have him in here.

I'd agree with not playing him if we weren't in such a sticky situation in this tie.

Reasons people doubt Pedro:

2673 minutes
45 shots
5 goals
8 assists

compare to Alexis

1388 minutes
30 shots
3 goals
4 assists

and Villa

1024 minutes
36 shots
10 goals
1 assist

I know this isn't the whole story but he has definitely been lacking on the finishing end this season. I like Pedro too, don't get me wrong.

Hopefully we can knock in a couple of goals before halftime because I can only watch the first half

Villa also has been the starter on Cup matches for Barca, wouldn't surprise me if he actually starts plus it'll give him a boot of confidence at least to know that he's important.

yeah he's not having the greatest season so far but he always delivers on big matches, trust me.

Obviously, this is going to be a very tough match for us, I think we can pretty much take it for granted that we won't keep a clean sheet, so I'm going for 3-2 to us.

Wish i remember the article that showed how pedro and alexis runs throughout the matches gave way to messi by pulling out the defenders to them , for villa i think he would pull the defenders towards messi