It has been only a few weeks since Xavi commented that “there’s an abysmal gap” between Real Madrid and Barcelona. Frankly, it’ll be quite the surprise if Los Blancos don’t underline the truth of his words in the Supercopa de Espana semifinal on Wednesday (stream LIVE, 2 p.m. ET, ESPN+) by handing the Blaugrana XI a thumping.
Barcelona’s one-time magical midfielder, now the coach charged with producing a silk purse out of the sow’s ear situation he inherited, was essentially talking about the points gap in the table. But ahead of what threatens to be Barcelona’s fifth straight defeat to Madrid — something that hasn’t happened since 1962 to 1964 — it’s likely that Xavi wishes he hadn’t said any such thing. Because somehow, he has to convince his injury afflicted, coronavirus-suffering, super-young, ultra-fledgling team that they’re not going to suffer a healthy stuffing at the hands of Luka Modric, Karim Benzema, Vinicius Junior, Eder Militao, Toni Kroos & Co. Again.
Suddenly, with the ebullience of Nico and Gavi, the return of Ansu Fati, the possible return of Golden Boy winner Pedri, Luuk De Jong scoring goals and the €55 million signing of Ferran Torres to great fanfare, Barcelona (in principle, at least) should be able to field a best XI that can compete with most teams — Madrid included. But not just yet.
Ansu and Pedri have missed most of the season — so has Torres. Midfielder Frenkie de Jong isn’t going to be in shape to play. If defender Ronald Araujo does make it, he’ll be on the pitch five days after surgery on a broken bone in his hand. Centre-back Eric Garcia won’t be ready for much competitive action before the end of February. This, to put it bluntly, is about a million miles away from the best time to be playing against a Real Madrid side that recently racked up a series of big-game performances to tuck away rivals like Real Sociedad, Atletico, Athletic and Sevilla in LaLiga, plus Italy’s champions-elect Inter Milan in the Champions…
Source : espn
