(Football news) Real Madrid and Barcelona will gear up for the first leg of the Copa Del Rey semi final at the Santiago Bernabéu. Los Blancos come into the game after a lackluster draw at home against Atletico Madrid. Barcelona on the other hand have lost their last 2 matches against Manchester United and Almeria. The last time these 2 sides met was in the Spanish Super Cup final where Real Madrid were completely outplayed aa Barcelona won 3-1. Things have changed since then and Carlo Ancelotti will be hoping for a much better performance by his team.

Real Madrid are still without Ferland Mendy and David Alaba which means that Nacho will start at left back. Rodrygo has made a surprisingly quick recovery and is a part of Real Madrid’s squad but he is likely to be on the bench. Alvaro Rodriguez has had 2 very impactful substitute appearances and It will be interesting to see how many minutes he gets. Barcelona will be missing Robert Lewandowski, Ousmane Dembele and Pedri. Ansu Fati was also expected to be out but he has travelled with the squad. Whether he plays or not remains to be seen. Andreas Christensen is also a big doubt for the game as he is struggling with an ankle issue.

The battle between Ronald Araujo and Vinicius Jr will be very interesting to see. Usually Xavi plays Jules Kounde at right back with Araujo in the middle but they are likely to interchange. Araujo and Vinicius have had some great duels in the past with both players getting the better of each other on multiple occasions. All eyes will be on what midfield Carlo Ancelotti picks. He is likely to play only one of Toni Kroos and Luka Modric or he might even bench both of them.

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