Copa del Rey final: Athletic Bilbao vs Barcelona preview

May 29, 2015
By: Nemanja Lazarevic

Barca vs AthleticTwo of the competition’s most successful clubs that have amazing 49 Copa del Rey trophies between them will square off in this year’s final at Camp Nou.

Athletic Bilbao are clearly disadvantaged with the game played at Barcelona’s home ground, but we shouldn’t write them off just yet.

Los Leones experienced all sorts of problems after Marcelo Bielsa left the club, but Ernesto Valverde has finally brought some stability to the club.

After leading Athletic to the Champions League, the talented coach was unable to get past the group stage, but this season can, nonetheless, be deemed a success.

Los Leones did really well to pip Celta Vigo, Malaga and Espanyol to the final Europa League berth, while they have an opportunity to enter the history books by beating Barcelona in the Copa del Rey final.

And with the Basque club already having 23 Cup trophies to their name, you should know they can be backed at 7.50 (13/2) to make it 24.

There have been some good news for Ernesto Valverde as Aymeric Laporte and Xabi Etxeita resumed full training and they are expected to start.

Following the impressive 4-0 triumph over Villarreal on the final day of the La Liga campaign, the coach is unlikely to make major changes for the Barcelona game.

Probable starting line-up (4-2-3-1): Iago – De Marcos, Etxeita, Laporte, Balenziaga – San Jose, Benat – Iraola, Williams, Aketxe – Aduriz.

While many people had doubts over club’s decision to appoint Luis Enrique as head coach last summer, the talented coach didn’t need a lot of time to prove the doubters wrong.

Heavy summer recruitment definitely helped as the likes of Luis Suarez, Claudio Bravo and Ivan Rakitic quickly developed into important players, while Leo Messi rediscovered his form early on.

As a result, Barcelona won the difficult battle with Real Madrid to lift the La Liga trophy, while making it to Champions League and Copa del Rey finals.

This means the Catalans are still in the race for a historic treble and they are available at 1.25 (1/4) to defeat Athletic in the Cup final.

Luis Suarez appears to have overcome a hamstring problem and is ready to start, meaning los Leones will have to be wary of the amazing attacking trident.

Marc-Andre ter Stegen will continue his Copa del Rey run, while Andres Iniesta, Javier Mascherano, Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba will be recalled.

Probable starting line-up (4-3-3): ter Stegen – Alves, Pique, Mascherano, Alba – Rakitic, Busquets, Iniesta – Messi, Suarez, Neymar.

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