He Atlético de Madrid, the ‘king’ of the Spanish League at the moment due to his leadership status, visits this January 6 Cornellà to play the second round of the Copa del Rey. After eliminating the modest Cardassar At the tournament's premiere, the rojiblanco team must do the same today with Cornellà, Second B, to follow the path marked yesterday by Simeone: to go as far as possible in this tournament, something that the colchoneros have not achieved since 2013, when they reached the final, and won it, against Real Madrid.
The Catalan team, in a bad streak until December 20, when they played their last game, is full of energy before the visit of Madrid. Their priority is the League, where they hope to fight again for promotion to Second, but on a day like today, the illusion is the last thing that is lost. And as his coach, also from Madrid, assured Guillermo Fernandez Romo, aspire to make an extraordinary game to have options to pass.
El Cholo, who kept the call until before traveling, will once again pull the so-called 'unit B' for the cupbearer duel. In Madrid, if you don't change your mind, men like Suárez, Oblak, Carrasco or Koke. Yes, Joao Félix will travel, in principle, although apparently yesterday in training, he will start on the bench.
In the eleven they will form Grbic: Ricard, Giménez, Felipe, Lodi; Vitolo, Kondogbia, Torreira, Vitolo; Correa and Sergio Camello. A golden opportunity for less common players to show the coach that they deserve more minutes. Above all, men like Saul. The one who will be captain today has lost his status as a permanent fixture in the coach's plans, and he knows that only with daily work and on opportunities like today can he make the Argentine coach change his mind. Special mention also for Vitolo, who should look in the mirror of Lemar to be more protagonist in this Atlético, where the youth players Camel and Ricard they will jump from start to the grass.
A grass that, as in the previous round, will once again be artificial. It took more than 20 minutes for the red-and-white team to adapt to that surface in front of the Cardassar. And with it Cornellà counts. It will be one of the weapons of the Barcelona team to try to surprise.
Atlético comfortably surpassed the previous tie, but has been warned a year ago, when Cultural lowered the Copa's colchoneros. The favoritism, of course, is of the rojiblanco team, the provisional 'king' of LaLiga, that this 6 January arrives in Cornellà with the intention of not giving gifts to an excited team that dreams of a magical afternoon.