And Ferran shuts the door and all that. Clinical. 1-3 edit: oh damn, Offside is a treacherous mistress edit2: by half a forehead! gah.
FT: Albacete 1-2 Barcelona Feel a little bad for Albacete - how epic it would've been for them to take down two giants. Oh well. We move on.
And semifinal comes quickly - next midweek, to be precise. As the semi is two legs, it would be good to avoid Atletico.
Not the cleanest of performances by Barça. Albacete and their supporters should be proud. Happy to move on.
Indeed. A part of the body he can legally score with is offside, assuming the technology paints an accurate picture.
And of course, Barca draws Atletico Madrid in the CdR semis. First leg in Madrid. The other semi is, of course, a derby between Athletic and Real Sociedad.
Good. It gets them out of the way earlier in the season, so that Barca can also have some focus on the UCL as well. If Atleti and Barca were to face off in the final, it could divert some attention from the UCL semifinals, assuming Barca make it that far.
Yeah, but now its 2 tough games (w/o Pedri) instead of 1, and diverts attention away from CL round of 16, and we'll definitely get that far. Starting March with: Atleti, Athletic, PSG/Newcastle. Guess we'll sacrifice the La Liga match.
Now thats odd. Originally, it was stated to be "3 to 4 weeks" out for Pedri. So, from 21 Jan to 17 Feb. Over on Transfermarkt, they say he'll be out until 9 March. If it is the original "3 to 4 weeks," Pedri would miss Girona on the 16th, have a cameo vs Levante on 22 Feb, 55-60 minutes vs Villarreal on 1 March, before 75 minutes vs Atleti on 3 March. (As an aside, why not move the Villarreal match to 28 Feb, to accommodate the semifinal better?) Is his recovery not going as planned?
Football España has Barça as targeting the Levante match on 22 Feb as his return date, for what its worth. To @BocaFan 's point, IF Pedri is out, then it's a problem. If not, then I stand by my earlier statement of it being GOOD to put Atleti to the sword earlier.