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Although there is a break in the UEFA Champions League this week, there will be no shortage of top-level football. The fiercest rivals in Spain, "Barcelona" and "Real," will clash at the "Camp Nou" stadium on Tuesday evening. It is this evening that will determine which of them will advance to the Spanish "Copa del Rey" cup final.
The clash of "El Clasico", as always, sparks massive passions. After the first leg of the semi-final match, which ended in a 1-1 draw in Madrid, the future hosts of the return match were considered favorites, but there is no shortage of worry in the Catalan camp.
Especially after the painful defeat in Milan (in the Champions League round of 16, "Barcelona" started with a 0-2 defeat against "Milan" - 15min.lt).
"We must demonstrate the best football because we are playing against our biggest rivals. We want to play in the final, but it won't be easy to win," said Lionel Messi, who, like the whole team, wants to forget the nightmare in Milan as soon as possible.
"That defeat should not affect, break, or restrict us. We need to forget all of that and show the kind of football that our fans are used to seeing. Physically, the team feels great, and so do I," shared thoughts L. Messi.
"Real" club faces an exceptional upcoming week - the Tuesday match against "Barcelona," the "El Clasico" on the weekend in another front - in the Spanish league, and next week the Madrid footballers will go into the Champions League return match against the "Manchester United" team.
"We are highly motivated because you know what kind of upcoming weeks await us. We will fight against the most powerful clubs in the world, and we are prepared for that," said Gonzalo Higuain.
There was the most emotion between the team coaches before the upcoming "El Clasico," where the discussion centered around the referee assigned to the match, Alberto Undiano Mallenco.
Although "Real" club only won three of the last 15 "El Clasico" matches, two of those victories were achieved with U. Mallenco as the referee.
"The numbers with Undiano are not in our favor. We still remember how he allowed fouls to be committed by "Real" players in the cup final. We hope that the referee's decisions will not mark the match negatively. All "El Clasico" matches are tense and difficult to manage. We hope that everything will be controlled, and the sporting boundaries will not be crossed," said Jordi Roura.
However, "Royal" club coach Jose Mourinho mocked such observations and said that "Barcelona" should only think about football, not the match referee.
"From the representatives of FC 'Barcelona,' we can learn all the principles of honorable play: they never talk about referees, don't surround them, and don't put pressure on them. Additionally, they never try to extract yellow cards for opponents from them," J. Mourinho sarcastically responded.
Match review of "El Clasico":
