Daily Thread: 05 April 2023

The Daily Merengue is a place where you can feel free to discuss all things football. Do not be alarmed by the overt RMCF bias. It’s in the name!

Shoutout to the mods who do a fantastic job, Felipejack, Kung_Fu_Zizou, Juninho, NeRObutBlanco and yours truly, Valyrian Steel.

Gameday!! Time to deliver Don Carlo.

Barring Mendy, the Italian will have his full squad available to take on Barcelona at the Camp Nou. Ancelotti previously famously declared that he won’t make the same mistake twice. Time to actually live up to those words after failing to do so in previous occasions. Nothing but progression to the finals of the Copa Del Rey will do against a Barca team missing some key pieces. With La liga practically over Los Blancos have a chance at just 2 trophies remaining this season.

How is Barcelona likely to lineup?

The Blaugrana should be coming in with a ton of confidence, as they have won three of the four official El Clasico meetings so far this season. Aside from the first-leg victory, they won a La Liga match 2-1 on March 19 and the Supercopa final 3-1 in January. In last month’s domestic league game, Barca put seven of their 17 shots on target and had an 8-1 edge on corner kicks.

Barcelona has lost just one game at home since last August, and that was a 3-0 setback to Bayern Munich in the Champions League group stage. They have won 11 of their 13 league matches at Camp Nou, outscoring their opponents 27-2. Barca reached the Copa del Rey semis by defeating CF Intecity (4-3) AD Ceuta (0-5), and Real Sociedad (1-0).

Barca will be without Pedri, Ousmane Dembélé, Andreas Christensen, and Frenkie de Jong due to injuries. Ansu Fati will join Raphinha and Lewandowski in front while Franck Kessie joins Gavi and Sergio Busquets in the midfield. Kounde, Araujo, Alonso and Balde are expected to lineup in defence with Ter Stegen in goal. Considering that Los Blancos are already a goal down they will need yet another Remontada in a tough away stadium.

ICYMI: Is it inexcusable for Real Madrid not to beat Barcelona?

In this not to miss Churros y Tácticas Podcast, Kiyan Sobhani and Diego Lorijn discuss everything from should Rodrygo Goes start to Ceferin’s statements about Barca, Juve and Real Madrid. Give it a listen.