Real Madrid v Barcelona: 'Xavi needs to find an ace up his sleeve!' – Preview of upcoming Copa del Rey Clasico

It may have escaped your notice but we have a Clasico this week! Yes, that’s right, eternal rivals Real Madrid and Barcelona will do battle in the first leg of their Copa del Rey semi-final clash. The first leg is being played at the Bernabeu on Thursday, March 2, and you can follow along with Eurosport’s live coverage. The return leg will be at the Camp Nou on April 5, over a month later.

Ad It has a strange time for both of the Spanish giants. Real Madrid did get the big win in the Champions League over Liverpool, but they have dropped points in the past couple of months and are seven points behind in the title race. Europa LeagueXavi backs Sheikh Jassim for Man Utd, says Barcelona doors 'always open' to Messi22/02/2023 AT 21:33 It has not all been plain sailing for Barcelona either, they were knocked out of the Europa League by Manchester United and then were beaten at the weekend by Almeria.

Plus, now star forward Robert Lewandowski is out for a short period with an injury. So in order to set the scene a bit for the Clasico, we got in touch with Felix Martin from Eurosport Spain to see what’s going on. Let’s start with the Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti, who has been relatively prickly in the past few weeks.

What’s going on there? “For some time now, there has been quite a bit of controversy between Vinicius and the referees,” Martin explained. “I think what Ancelotti is doing is trying to be the focus of the criticism and somehow 'take the hit’ to try to take pressure off his players. But I don't think there is any kind of open war between Ancelotti and the referees.” ‘I didn’t panic’ – Ten Hag reflects on rough start to Man Utd tenure ‘You cannot destroy your life’ – Arteta empathises with under-pressure