Actual Madrid vs Barcelona preview; Ultimate Tremendous Cup, El Clasico, workforce information – INA NEWS

Who: Actual Madrid vs Barcelona
What: Spanish Tremendous Cup remaining
The place: King Abdullah Sports activities Metropolis, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
When: 10:00pm (19:00 GMT) on Sunday
Observe Al Jazeera’s dwell textual content and picture build-up and commentary stream.

Actual Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti stated his gamers can avenge their thrashing earlier this season by Barcelona by successful the Spanish Tremendous Cup on Sunday, however provided that they prevented making the identical errors.

Hansi Flick’s Barcelona routed Los Blancos 4-0 on the Santiago Bernabeu in October in LaLiga, though a stoop earlier than the winter break helped Actual Madrid overtake them on the high of the desk.

“We’ve got to consider that sport clearly, they beat us, we had a transparent analysis of what occurred,” Ancelotti instructed a information convention Saturday earlier than the conflict in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

“We began the sport nicely, then had issues within the second half, so we’ve got to attempt to repeat the nice issues we did and keep away from the errors we made.

“The Clasico is much more pressured when it’s a remaining, we’ve performed rather a lot towards Barcelona and enjoying a remaining towards them is all the time one thing particular.”

Can Madrid discover a steadiness for Mbappe, Bellingham and co?

Madrid, who beat Mallorca 3-0 of their semifinal on Thursday, are nonetheless trying to find a steadiness between assault and defence of their sport after the arrival of French celebrity Kylian Mbappe from Paris Saint-Germain final 12 months.

Together with Vinicius Junior, Jude Bellingham and Rodrygo Goes, the 4 gamers give Madrid a major edge going ahead however can harm the workforce if they aren’t targeted defensively.

“[In recent Clasicos] particular person high quality has prevailed over workforce steadiness,” continued Ancelotti. “An vital facet [in the final] shall be steadiness and collective work – defending.

“When you defend nicely, there’s extra probability of successful.”

Ancelotti previously said his worst memory from a successful 2024, in which Madrid won LaLiga and the Champions League, was the beating by Barcelona.

“We’re close to another trophy, we’re thinking positively, but we know that in football anything can happen, above all when the opponent is strong and competes well like Barcelona,” added Ancelotti, whose side have won both the European Super Cup and Intercontinental Cup already this season.

“Our team has improved, nobody can argue with that. A defeat wouldn’t be good, but the team is not going backwards, it will keep moving forwards.”

Will Barcelona bring the temporarily reprieved Olmo in for Gavi?

Barcelona midfielder Dani Olmo will be able to play after the Catalans were controversially granted a temporary licence for him by Spain’s National Sports Council (CSD).

The Spanish international’s clearance came too late on Wednesday for him to play a part in the Catalan club’s 2-0 semifinal win against Athletic Bilbao.

“Olmo will play and we have to minimise his quality,” said Ancelotti, who has resisted giving his opinion about the case which has aggravated Spanish football.

Flick, who changed Barca enjoying legend Xavi as coach on the finish of final season, stated Olmo was able to play however prompt he may not begin after Gavi shone within the semifinal towards Athletic Bilbao within the attacking midfield position.

“Gavi had an awesome efficiency towards Athletic, he’s received confidence … I believe he’s goes to play, however I’m not 100-percent certain of who will play,” stated Flick.

The Tremendous Cup affords the German coach his first probability at silverware since arriving at Barcelona.

“If we win, we can have extra confidence for the remainder of the season,” added Flick. “Profitable the sport can be one thing actually large for everybody.”

What’s the Supercopa de Espana?

The Supercopa pits collectively the winners and runners-up of each the Spanish home league, LaLiga, and Spain’s home cup competitors, Copa del Rey.

Though first performed in 1982, between the league and cup winners alone, it was expanded to 4 groups in 2020.

Actual Madrid are the present league champions, with Barcelona ending second, whereas Athletic Bilbao are the cup holders, having defeated Mallorca in final season’s remaining.

The place will the Spanish Supercopa remaining be performed?

This 12 months’s Supercopa is being staged in Saudi Arabia with all three matches staged at King Abdullah Sports activities Metropolis Stadium in Jeddah.

The venue, which performs host to the Saudi nationwide workforce and shall be a part of the 2034 World Cup, has already hosted the 2 semifinals.

Who’re the Supercopa holders?

Actual Madrid received the 2024 Supercopa, defeating Barcelona 4-1 within the remaining.

Final 12 months’s version was additionally staged in Saudi Arabia, with Riyadh the host metropolis on that event.

Vinicius Junior scored a first-half hat-trick for Los Blancos, whereas Rodrygo sealed issues within the second interval after Robert Lewandowski netted the one objective for Barca.

Actual beat Madrid rivals Atletico of their semifinal, whereas Barca overcame Osasuna.

Actual Madrid workforce information

Aurelien Tchouameni, Federico Valverde and Jude Bellingham are all out there for choice for the ultimate regardless of accumulating knocks in Thursday’s semifinal.

Luca Modric stays the primary doubt for Los Blancos after withdrawing on the day of the last-four victory towards Mallorca.

Eder Militao and Dani Carvajal each stay sidelined.

Actual Madrid predicted XI: Courtesy; Vazquez, Asencio, Rudiger; Mendy; Valverde, Camavinga, Bellingham; Rodrigo, Mbappe, Vinicius Jr

Hansi Flick 🤝 Carlo Ancelotti#ElClásico pic.twitter.com/aVPsUtsIIC

— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) January 11, 2025

Barcelona workforce information

Dani Olmo and Pau Victor are each out there to play for Barca after momentary registrations have been granted to the pair following the membership’s protracted dispute with Spain’s supreme sports activities council.

Andreas Christensen, Marc Bernal, Marc-Andre Ter Stegen all stay absent for Barcelona, for whom the largest query is who will change the latter in objective.

Former Arsenal keeper Wojciech Szczesny was handed the gloves for the semifinal win towards Athletic Bilbao, however Inaki Pena is being tipped to take over the position for the ultimate.

Predicted Barcelona XI: Punishment; Kounde, Cubarsi, Martinez, Balde; Casado, Pedri; Yamal, Olmo, Raphinha; Lewandowski

Type information – Actual Madrid:

Actual have hit type on the proper time with 5 straight wins recorded and 7 victories coming in an eight-match unbeaten run. Previous to that, Los Blancos had misplaced 4 of their earlier seven video games, together with their humbling at house by Barca. Final 5 video games: W W W W W

Type information – Barcelona:

Barcelona look like slowly rising from their worst run of the season with successive wins recorded for the primary time in 11 video games. Previous to that, the Catalan membership had received solely three of 9, with 4 defeats suffered in that run. This all got here after Hansi Flick received 14 of his first 16 video games in cost this season. Final 5 video games: W L L W W

Head-to-head:

Actual have received 105 of the 258 conferences between the perimeters, with Barca rising victorious on 101 events.

Actual had received the final 4 conferences between the perimeters – together with the Spanish Tremendous Cup in January and the Copa del Rey assembly final season – earlier than October’s 4-0 defeat in LaLiga.