The third and final Clasico of the 2013-14 campaign will take place on Wednesday evening when Barcelona meet Real Madrid in the final of the Copa del Rey at the Mestalla in Valencia.
Barcelona, who are 26-time winners of the Spanish Cup, last won the competition in 2012, while Madrid, who lost to Atletico Madrid in the final last season, have won the trophy on 18 occasions.
Barcelona crashed out of the Champions League last week, and defeat at Granada on the weekend leaves them third in La Liga, with Gerardo Martino’s reputation in tatters.
Real are slightly less troubled, having just about seen off Borsussia Dortmund to progress in Europe, but with Bayern Munich waiting in the semi-finals, and Atletico Madrid three points ahead in La Liga, this could be Carlo Ancelotti’s best chance of a trophy this season.
Throw in the intense rivalry between the two clubs, and the bad blood that hangs over from Barceolona’s 4-3 victory in March, and this cup final could be explosive.
KICK-OFF: Wednesday, 8.30pm (BST)
Real Madrid 3 (Benzema 2, Ronaldo) Barcelona 4 (Iniesta, Messi 3), La Liga, March 2014
Barcelona 2 (Neymar, Sanchez) Real Madrid 1 (Jese), La Liga, October 2013
Real Madrid 2 (Benzema , Ramos) Barcelona 1 (Messi), La Liga, March 2013
What: Copa del Rey Final
Where: Mestalla Stadium, Valencia, Spain
When: 3:25 p.m. ET/8:25 p.m BST/9:25 p.m. CEST
TV: ESPN
Live Stream: Watch ESPN
Copa Del Rey Preview
Even during perhaps one of his down seasons, Messi has been a star in the Spanish league.
Messi hasn't put together the outrageous numbers that made him a superstar, but his consistency throughout the season has still pushed him to the top of the leaderboard in goals scored, as ESPN FC points out:
Thus far in his career, Messi has he proven can be at another level from the rest of the field, something he regularly did during previous campaigns. But without the two-plus goal games or record-setting trends continuing, some wondered what had happened to the game's best player.
After averaging 1.5 goals through his 64 games in the last two seasons, just 25 in 24 contests seems like a huge drop-off. But given the current situation with Ronaldo out of the final match, expectMessi once again to carry Barca, something OptaJose reports he's been doing recently:
Even with the drop-off in production for Messi, Andres Iniesta believes it's simply due to the fact that his greatness over the past several seasons has left fans with unreasonable expectations, per freelancejournalist Sergi Dominguez:
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