Barcelona coach Xavi Hernandez warned his team on Tuesday that their Copa del Rey semi-final opponents Real Madrid would be coming to wage a “footballing war” at Camp Nou.
The Catalans hold a 1-0 lead from the first leg and have beaten their rivals in each of the last three Clasicos. “It doesn’t mean anything that we have won the last three Clasicos, tomorrow is another footballing war,” Xavi told reporters.
Xavi Hernandez
“They will be out for revenge, they will come here hurt, they have lost the last three. They will come here wounded, I am sure.” Barcelona will be without four injured key players in Pedri, Ousmane Dembele, Frenkie de Jong and Andreas Christensen.
“Madrid come tomorrow and they can beat you perfectly well—they can against any team. They have a lot of experience, they are used to mounting comebacks. They are still favourites for me. We were better in the league game and in the Super Cup, but we weren’t in the first leg,” said Xavi.
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“[I predict] an aggressive Madrid, who want to take the ball off us, pressing us. We need to have a lot of personality tomorrow to keep the ball,” added Xavi.
Madrid boss Carlo Ancelotti said his team will try to keep cool heads as they bid to overturn a 1-0 deficit. “The idea is not to go crazy to try and score a goal,” said Madrid coach Ancelotti. “The idea is to play a complete game, with and without the ball.”
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