PBP: 12/13 Copa del Rey Semifinal: Leg 1 | Real Madrid v FC Barcelona | 30 Jan 2013 [R]

I'm ruling out a 0-0 draw in this game.

Obviously, LPB are going to be missing some key player, but given our inabaility to keep clean sheets I still see them scoring. I'm going for 2-2.

Predicting:

Pinto
Alves-Puyol-Pique-Alba
Xavi-Busq-Cesc
Pedro-Messi-Iniesta

As for the result, any win is ok, but would prefer 3-1 or 2-1 over 1-0. Scoredraw a bit meh, but acceptable I guess.

Come on mate, you know we are never going to win a game 1-0.

2-2 or 3-3, I just hope if its going to be a draw it would be at least not a scoreless game.

Lineup picks itself, really. Only Puyol/Mascherano is up for debate.

So no Di Maria, Coentrao, Pepe, or Casillas for them. Marcelo only half fit. Is Ramos suspended for this? A lot of people seem to be saying he is, but I'm not sure about the details of his ban.

So they'll be playing us with a makeshift defence just like we did back in October, when they couldn't capitalize on it and win the game. Let's hope we do, just like we did last year at the Bernabeu in the Copa.

I hope we can handed Mou his 12th defeat against Barcelona, nice record.

Not to labour the point, but with our defence clearly we will need to score, so a high(ish) score draw would be a decent result. Although given their absences I think we should be looking for a win. However, as they are out of the running for the league, they will be really up for this.

I dont remember the last time they beat us by more than 1 goal so I'm still expecting a win by 1 goal at least but I predict a draw based on our state of defence since the start of this season.

I hope Alves isnt too committed on the attack. Di Maria absent should be an adventage since he had a goal in super cup and a winning asssist in 2011 copa del rey. I'm not too worried about Madrid defence, since we never had much problem finding the net against them in last many years. Their attack though has giving us problem since 2011.

For once it would be nice if we could get an early goal, given that Moanio is about as popular as anthrax with LPB fans and players, that could tunr the atmosphere ugly which would help us.

But we'll see.

Can't see Mourinho doing anything but bunkering down in the 1st leg with so many players missing. He typically does that on cup ties with a full team anyways. Gotta be careful with those counters.

You're forgetting something, Moanio is no longer in charge at LPB.

I'd love to see this line-up, but so far, it seems to me that Barca's been hesitant to start both Alves and Alba against LPB. Obviously LPB's most successful form of attack is their counter-attack (which I believe to be the best in the world) and it seems Barca don't want to risk having both Alba and Alves bombing up the field and leaving huge gaps for Ronaldo and co. Granted, in our first three meetings this season either Alba was still adapting to the squad or Dani was "out of form", but it seems this coaching staff doesn't want to pair these two against LPB. Personally, I'm hoping we see both of them out there and just drop Busquets back to form a safe back 3 with Pique and Puyol while we're safely in possesion.

They have played together against LPB, remember the last Clasico. It was Alves and Alba as fullbacks with Mascherano and Adriano in the center of defense.

I don't think that's the big issue this time since they're missing Di Maria so the threat will mainly come from the left side where Cristiano is at. Alves has started almost every game since we played Cordoba away while Alba was rested yesterday for this game. I don't think either of them will be left out.

You're right, for some reason the league match often escapes my mind and I think back to the SuperCopa matches from the start of the season. All I remember is Adriano sabotaging everything and getting that early first half red card.

Anyone have bein sports in the USA?

It doesn't seem to show it on mine or maybe they are slow to update schedule...

I haven't checked yet, but that's probably the case. It's listed as being shown here:

http://www.livesoccertv.com/match/670912/real-madrid-vs-barcelona/

Not only is beIN 1 and 2 both showing the game, they are showing a '90 in 30" episode (extended highlights) of the Barca "B" v Madrid Castilla match from last weekend, a full replay of the league clasico back in October and a 30 minute pre-game show. So 5 hours of el clasico coverage beginning at noon ET.

I think Messi and Maradona should do a remake of this film

Messi could be the white guy and Maradona could be the black guy

That sounds fantastic! How long are beIN Sports going to be showing La Liga games on their channels? I know they'll definetly be showing it next season as well but will the deal go beyond that? Or will it be moved to another channel again?

That's what worries me. On mine it only says Spanish primera division.. No other detail.. But they have always shown copa del Rey..

I'll have to watch a replay

We have conceided 24 goals so far, last season we conceided 32 in entire season. 2 seasons ago only 21 goals conceided.

True.

But we are #1 on the table, and anyway goal difference is more important than goals conceded. We're cool, but obv should look into ways of improving the defence as one could always do better.