FC Barcelona face Real Madrid in the second leg of the 2022-23 Copa del Rey Semi-Final on Wednesday night at Spotify Camp Nou. This match has immense stakes as it will decide which of the two traditional rivals will advance to the Final of the Cup, and get a golden chance at winning an important piece of silverware.
Despite the importance of the match, neither of the clubs will be able to field their best teams on the pitch. Both the teams are missing a number of players with injuries, with Barcelona facing more difficulties than Real Madrid.
Key players like Andreas Christensen, Ousmane Dembele, Pedri, and Frenkie de Jong are all out of action, and not likely to appear in the Classico. As a result, fringe players like Eric Garcia, Ferran Torres, Ansu Fati, Marcos Alonso, and some of the youngsters can be relied upon by Xavi to take to the field and get the needed result from the match.
On the other hand, Real Madrid will be missing Ferland Mendy, who is an important player in the team. He could be replaced by either of Nacho Fernandez, David Alaba, or Eduardo Camavinga, but none of them is a natural left-back, which can complicate things for Carlo Ancelotti.
Despite this lack of availability of key players, FC Barcelona will be quite confident in their ability to make it to the finals of the Copa del Rey. They will be encouraged by the fact that they won the first leg of the Semi-Final 1-0, even with a similar thin squad as they have right now.
Furthermore, their dominant league position over Real Madrid, with a 12-point lead with 27 matches played, will also convince the Blaugrana players of their superiority over the current Real Madrid squad.
