Excellent result obtained at the Ruiz de lopera a week ago so now it's time to try and finnish of the tie. The game is not over by any stretch of the imagination and complacency cannot be allowed to creep into our game. This will be our 5th game in 20 days so I hope fatigue does not show here although undoubtedly the players will be tired. Guti is injured for this one and I would expect the ususal resting of our senior players in Beckham, Zidane and Roberto Carlos. Betis are off the back of our defeat followed by a 0-2 defeat to Valencia. Perhaps Lorenzo may divert his aims else where. I would urge Caro to field a strong team for this once because we would be in the semis and anyone could win from there. --------------------------------Casillas--------------------------------- Diogo-------------------Mejia---------Ramos----------------------Bravo -----------------------Helguera-------Gravesen-------------------------- Cicinho-----------------------------------------------------------Robinho ------------------------------Baptista----------------------------------- ------------------------------Soldado----------------------------------- This is not necessarily how I feel we should lineup but I suspect it is how we will do so. Gravesen will get his wish by been given the attacking role leaving Helguera to anchor the back 4. I always thought that Helguera was a much better centre half and doesn't have the stmina of a midfilder but Caro has used him here frequently. Again I would assume that Diogo and Cicnho will often rotate postions and as one advances the othe stays back. I think Diogo is a better defender and Cicnho a better attacker although Caro may think otherwise. Baptista will drop back to AM where he appears most comfortable and I have a sneaky suspicion he might grab a goal. The currently excellent Robinho will play on the left where he has been fantastic of late. We will play Soldado as our striker and it gives him another great oppurtunity to show what he can do and wether or not he can impose himself as a regular. I think the notable absentees for Betis are Assuncao and Olivera who were also both missing from the first leg. This game will be live from 20:00 Spanish time so I hope that can help those who know more than I do about the time difference. It will also be shown on GolTV.
Knowing López Caro prefers 4-2-3-1 to 4-1-4-1, I expect Helguera+Gravesen in midifield (I would welcome a Gravesen+De la Red partnership instead, to keep with the more offensive lineup; De la Red played very well against Numancia yesterday) I also expect Zidane to be rested and substituted by either Baptista , Cassano or Soldado, and I think Beckham will be kept and subbed if we are winning.
I don't like the midfiled in this lineup.Cicinho didn't play too well on the right last game against betis, also, im not sure helgura and gravesen partnership will work. But we really have to win this and advance.Hey is the semi final one game or is it still 2 legs??
How about Cicinho at RB and Balboa at RM? Let's have a look... Cicinho - Ramos - Mejia - Bravo ----- Helguera - Gravesen ---- Balboa --- Boobtista --- Robinho ---------- Soldado ----------- Yeah. I like that. Or maybe Cassano as withdrawn striker/CAM.
And Woodgate might start, according to Marca. Balboa would be good in the right, had a decent game on Sunday too.. Cicinho is better as RB.
My original lineup is what I think will be used. I didn't like the Diogo-Cicinho partnership but I suspect Caro is going to use as many first team players as possible when he can. I think he may think because last weeks team was successful then it will be so again. If Woodgate was to play I would use him instead of Ramos to give gim a break. He has played pretty much every game this season when he has been available.
thats actually attractive... just put Cassano in for Baptista so Bap can get his rest... we NEED his great skills for the home strecth!!!! Also Madrid_1902, Ramos will be okay, doesnt need rest like that... the guys 19..... got all the energy in the world.
im concerned about sergio. maybe we should give him one game off. we got the CL coming up. i mean hes 19, he still will get fatigue.
I read that Cassano is starting this game. AS reported it, then Datasport (Italian site) carried the article.
Yeah. I think it's time to rest Baptista. The beast has never been rested so far, which I can't understand. Put Cassano there for a whole match, and we can tell who is better. And it'll be interesting to see Cassano and Robinho co-operate on the left...
Perhaps. If it's true that he still needs to work on fitness, you'll see him at about 75%. But there is a difference between running at tired defenders late in the second half, and playing the full 90 minutes, so I agree you'll have a good chance to judge him. (I of course have seen him many times and know his qualities.) If Cassano does play well on Wednesday, he'll have made a nice contribution to Madrid's King's Cup campaign, as he scored the one goal last week. Looking forward to this match.
Here's the team Porteros: Casillas y Cobeño. Defensas: Roberto Carlos, Sergio Ramos, Raúl Bravo, Cicinho, Mejía y Diogo. Centrocampistas: Zidane, Helguera, Baptista, Beckham y Gravesen. Delanteros: Robinho, Cassano y Soldado.
maybe: GK Cicinho Ramos Mejia R.Bravo Diogo Grav Helguera Robinho Cassano Soldado im interested to see that there are no castilla outfield players in the squad apart from soladado who seems to be a regular in these squads anyway. this means that the team will be strong like above. im surprised with the squad selection to be honest also interesting is the GK position. will cobeno be given a game in lopez' absence or will he not take the risk and opt for casillas... EDIT my inclusion of cassano is purely on the basis of somebody sayin AS was reporting it. however i feel baptista may start there and cassano will be a 2nd half sub again. i personally hope he starts
I'd guess. -----------Casillas----------- Cicinho--Ramos-Mejia----Bravo -----Helguera---Gravesen----- Diogo------Baptista-----Robinho -----------Soldado----------- Subs: Cobeno, Pavon(if he's fit), Zidane, Beckham and Cassano. I think Zidane, Beckham and Cassano are our artillery if we need them. Last year we had Ronnie, Raul and Zidane on the bench against Valladolid in case we needed them. Thing is that we will make substitutions even if we are winning and means the elderly players will not be as fresh for the weekend. I really hope we approach this game witha real competitve attitude and realise that the tie is far from done. I'm not aware with who and who isn't playing for Betis ut Assancoa and Olivera are definitley out. Also I heard Arzu recovered from a knock he picked up against Valencia.
No channels showing this game yet.Hope sopcats has something tomolow. BTW is joquin playing tomolow, when he got red card last game, does mean he misses league game or this game??
sopcast usually comes through with that german/dutch channel on matchday. its weird, the last 3 copa games have all been on that channel, yet nobody ever puts it up at ******** on the schedule. I think its literally a fan streaming off his local tv, so it depends on if that person is doing it tomorrow.
Now the Italian sites are reporting that Cassano will not start. Apparently Caro Lopez said he is "not yet at his best." We'll see.