Linares Deportivo will face Barcelona on 5 January 2022 at 18:30 UTC at the Estadio Municipal de Linarejos stadium in Linares, Spain. The competition is the Copa del Rey. Barcelona will look to advance to the Copa del Rey last-16 stage when they travel to Andalusia on Wednesday evening to face Linares Deportivo.
The visitors are the competition’s holders, having defeated Athletic Bilbao in last season’s final, as well as the tournament’s most successful team, having won the trophy 31 times. Linares Deportivo, who play in Spain’s third tier, was created in 2009 and has never played at the top level, having previously played in the fourth and third tiers.
The Little Blues had only made it to the second round of the Copa del Rey in their previous three appearances, thus this season is already their best ever. Alberto Gonzalez’s side defeated Gimnastic Tarragona on penalties in the first round before defeating La Liga side Alaves 2-1 in the second round in the middle of December.
Linares Deportivo also won 4-0 over Sevilla’s second team in their most recent league encounter, putting them in 14th place in their domestic table with 22 points from their first 17 games. Barcelona, meanwhile, will enter Wednesday’s match on the strength of a 1-0 La Liga victory over Mallorca, with the Catalan giants triumphing despite a lengthy injury list.
Indeed, despite missing a number of first-team players due to injury and the coronavirus, Xavi’s side achieved a crucial win on Sunday to move into fifth place in the table, just one point behind fourth-placed Atletico Madrid after the same amount of games (19).
Barcelona, as previously stated, is the most successful side in Copa del Rey history, having won the trophy 31 times, including last season when they defeated Athletic Bilbao 4-0 in the final. Xavi’s side is 15 points behind league leaders Real Madrid, making a title challenge extremely unlikely. The club also failed to qualify for the Champions League’s last-16 stage, meaning the Copa del Rey may be their best chance of winning major silverware this season, though the Europa League is also an option.
Barcelona has won five of their past six Copa del Rey games, but they have only won one of their last four away games and will be without several first-team players once again. Linares Deportivo’s lineup is expected to be identical to the one that began the competition against Alaves in the second round, with a 4-4-2 formation featuring Hugo Diaz in the final third.
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Linares Deportivo v Barcelona
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