Barcelona clashes tomorrow with Real Sociedad for the second leg of their Copa del Rey series at Camp Nou in Barcelona.
In last week’s first leg Barcelona managed to get a victory at Anoeta stadium in San Sebastian for the first time since 2007.
The 1-0 win, thanks to a penalty goal by Brazilian striker neymar, should make Barcelona feel confident enough to advance. Real Sociedad has never before managed to eliminate the Catalans after earning a bad result in the first leg at home.
Real Sociedad has never won at Camp Nou in the Copa del Rey matches. These two teams have faced each other twelve times before the final and in fact, only twice has Real Sociedad advanced.
The last time Real Sociedad won at Camp Nou was during the 1990-91 season when it beat the Catalans 1-3 in a La Liga match. Furthermore, Barcelona has not lost a Copa del Rey match at Camp Nou since 2009-10 when they lost to Sevilla.
Real Sociedad will look to take advantage of the absences of Andres Iniesta and Sergio Busquests to get control of the midfield that would help them not only to get that elusive road win, but also pull a shocking upset.
Barcelona has now won four consecutive wins in all competitions after defeating Eibar 4-0 on the road during the weekend’s latest La Liga action, where they march in third place, two points behind leaders Real Madrid, who have one game less.
Meanwhile, Real Sociedad has won twice in their last four games, including a 2-0 rod win against Malaga.
Barcelona, the reigning champion of the competition, has won the Copa del Rey three times in the last five years. Should the team advance all the way to their fourth consecutive final they would be looking to win the Copa del Rey trophy for a record 29th time in 39 finals.
Real Sociedad has played five Copa del Rey finals but only won the competition during the 1986-87 season.
In other quarterfinal games Celta de Vigo eliminated Real Madrid by an aggregate score of 4-3, Atletico de Madrid advanced past Eibar with an aggregate score of 5-2 and Alaves eliminated Alcorcon with an aggregate 2-0 score.
