Copa Del Ray Quarter Finals Approach

There’s not much of a break between the quarter finals of the Copa Del Ray and the previous round, in fact it’s a matter of only a few days before the quarters start and the big news is the match up between Real Madrid and Barcelona.  Before we get to that, here’s a quick refresher of the two-leg cup ties coming up over the next couple of weeks.

• Tue   17.1.12          Espanyol vs Mirandes
• Tue   24.1.12         Mirandes vs Espanyol
• Wed 18.1.12          Athletic Bilbao vs Mallorca
• Wed 25.1.12         Mallorca vs Athletic Bilbao
• Wed 18.1.12         Real Madrid vs Barcelona
• Wed 25.1.12         Barcelona vs Real Madrid
• Thu  19.1.12          Valencia vs Levante
• Thu 26.1.12          Levante vs Valencia

There’s three decent ties there and one outstanding one – El Clásico, the name given to any match between Spain’s two biggest and most successful teams.  Barcelona and Real Madrid have met 29 times in this competition and, so far, Barcelona are slightly ahead on 14 wins to Madrid’s 10.  There have been 5 draws in the various legs.

So who’s the favourite for this one?  Aggregating bookmakers odds means neither team is good value for bet – both teams are capable of getting a result at home and away;  slightly more revealing is Barcelona’s slight edge in the overall odds for winning the competition, at the time of writing 13/8 compared to Real’s 15/8.  Way back at 8/1 are Espanyol and Bilbao and even further in the distance are the remaining teams.

Gerard Pique

The players are saying all the right things for the media and Barcelona defender Gerald Pique has probably spoken for everyone involved when he says that there are no favourites in this game, or in fact whenever the teams meet.  Pique says “these matches have a lot of tension, whee you get physically and mentally exhausted.  Whoever loses is a little bit diminished….”.

Having said that, it was only one month ago that Barcelona traveled down to Madrid and turned them over 3 – 1 in their own backyard.  If nothing else, Madrid will surely be out for some revenge.