Happy New Year! 2025 is here and Barcelona kick off the January schedule with their Copa del Rey season debut and a Round of 32 one-legged tie away to Barbastro at the Estadio Municipal de Barbastro on Saturday evening.
These two sides met exactly one year ago at this same stage of the tournament in the first weekend of 2024, with Barça winning a thriller and suffering a lot more than they had to against a fourth tier team.
A year later, Barbastro remain in the fourth division and are currently third worst in their group, but are on a four-game unbeaten streak which includes a commanding 2-0 win over Barça’s local rivals Espanyol in what has been the biggest upset in the Copa del Rey so far.
They know they can cause Barça problems, and will look to remain strong at the back and use their pace up front to try and pull off the upset of the century.
But the truth is this isn’t about the opponent: Barça’s biggest enemy ahead of Saturday is themselves, and they need to find a way to get out of their own way. Their horrendous form since the middle of November has been a tale of missed chances and frustrating losses, and the hope is that the two-week holiday break was enough to help the players get back to a good mental space so they can finish their opportunities and stop snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
It is also undeniable that the mess regarding the registrations of Dani Olmo and Pau Víctor has been an unnecessary distraction as the team looks to get back on track, but it’s time we all accept that you can’t spell FC Barcelona without D-R-A-M-A and the team needs to find a way to ignore the noise and focus on their jobs.
Barbastro will be confident they can take advantage of Barça’s bad form and use the energy from what will certainly be an incredible home crowd to pull off the unthinkable, but the Catalans should be able to win relatively easy if they just keep it simple and get out of their own way.
