Copa Del Rey- Match Day 1- Barça vs Cultural Leonesa

First of all, I'd like to start today's blog by taking a moment to laugh at Real Madrid.

Now that we've covered that, let's move on to the game at hand.

As expected, Pep has chosen a squad composed of youth an experience: 

Goalkeepers: Valdes, Pinto
Defenders: Benitez, Chygrynskiy, Marquez, Fontas, Abidal, Maxwell
Midfielders: Toure, Jonathan dos Santos, Busquets, Gai Assulin, Keita
Forwards: Pedro, Jeffren, Bojan, Jonatan Soriano

I'd expect us to line up as follows:

------------------Pinto--------------------

Maxwell--Marquez--Chygrynskiy--Abidal

--------------Busquets--------------------

-------Toure-----------Keita--------------

---Pedro------Bojan------Jeffren---------

A good mix of experience and youth is available. The back line is perhaps a little make shift looking, and maybe Pep will give a few of the younger players a run out instead of Marquez. Abidal can slot in at centre back too, so that's a possibility. In any case, let's hope both Marquez and Chygrynsky finally click and hit some kind of form tonight, as they've looked more than suspect recently, to say the least. It's crucial that Maxwell gets a chance to play, if even out of position, so he can continue his good run of form. Busquets is a no-brainer, and with Toure and Abidal being rested at the weekend, I expect them to start. Jeffren looked extremely promising in pre-season, and thus far hasn't had much playing time, so I expect him to cease the opportunity by the horns. Bojan is self explanatory, he was rampant in the Copa last year, and I expect him to pick up a few goals tonight. Likewise, Pedro is more than capable of causing havoc. 

Like most people, I'm not entirely familiar with Cultural Leonesa, but with no disrespect meant, we should rightly expect Barcelona to go out and dominate this game, and win it comfortably. Pep has came out in the media today and said that he takes all competitions seriously,with this game being no exception. We know from last year that he will hold true to this statement, and frankly I can't see anything but a Barça victory. I'll go for 3-0, with Toure, Jeffren and Bojan to pick up the goals respectively. Expect a few substitutions to give the younger players some game time, if the game is more or less won around half time. 

That's all for now, I'll be back before the weekend in anticipation of the Osasuna game.

Until then, Visca el Barça i visca Catalunya!