Athletic vs Málaga and look ahead to Copa final

On Wednesday night Valencia's Mestalla stadium hosts a Clásico in the Copa del Rey final.

     The teams come into the game in vastly different mindsets. Barcelona, having crashed out of the Champions League and lost second place in La Liga inside a week, are in bullish mood but one senses a terseness beneath the interviews given in the press. Real Madrid appear more at ease, but as with all derbies - and Clásicos in particular - form is temporary and the battle is all that matters. Literally, most of the time. It is of course just a few short weeks since los Blancos managed to balls-up at home to their hated enemies, and Barcelona will be hoping to emulate that victory in Valencia.

Carlo's eyebrow making a break for it

     Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti, left eyebrow permanently aflutter, revealed that the players would be practicing penalties ahead of the game for all of five minutes, although he would obviously hope to have the game well and truly finished before such a lottery became necessary. He also confirmed that, as expected, Ronaldo wouldn't be playing a part, although the Portuguese will be travelling with the squad along with the other injured players. Ancelotti also said he had his starting XI in mind but would not be revealing it to the press beforehand. Nevertheless, the Italian stated he was setting his team up 'to play our game with our identity' rather than attempting to respond to Barcelona's tactics. He conceded that the opposition would have the lion's share of possession, and so his team will have to 'control the game with the ball, and for that we need courage and personality, which are the most important traits for playing a final'.

Tata: "The last 2 games were clean"

     His opposite number, Tata Martino, recognised that the final represents a possible tonic for his squad after a torrid last week, although he is ruing the defensive injuries that have left him considering whether or not to play the creaking Puyol, who trained with the squad on Wednesday morning along with Marc Bartra. The Argentine manager refused to be drawn on Ronaldo's injury, but said he hopes for a clean game, expanding that 'the last two games against Real Madrid have been clean and well played by both teams'. It would seem he may have elected to forget Busquets stepping on Pepe's face a few weeks ago, apparently.
     As both presidents were posing with the Copa on Wednesday morning the press managed to wangle a quote out of Madrid head honcho Florentino Pérez, who rather diplomatically claimed 'we're not favourites, but we're optimistic'. On Tuesday, a few of the players had been wheeled out in front of the headline writers and as per usual nothing much of particular note was uttered, as is the way of such things. It seems footballers are paraded in front of the press in search of quotes, but whenever they say anything mildly interesting it gets blown out of all proportion as them calling the opposition manager's mum a whore or somesuch. The closest to interesting it got was when Iker Casillas was asked about his previous comment that he'd "slap" Spain teammate Sergio Busquets for the aforementioned foot-on-face altercation with Pepe. The goalkeeper said "I won't add to the circus that's blown up around this. I'll see him tomorrow and this matter will take up only two seconds of our conversation."

     The week began, however, with the impressive new San Mamés hosting Málaga in the final game of Week 33, with both teams needing the points for very different reasons. Athletic showed by far the greater desire to claim the win and re-establish their 6 point advantage over Sevilla in the battle for the fourth Champions League spot, and their positivity paid off early as Aritz Aduriz headed the Basques ahead in just the fourth minute from a corner. The striker scored again pretty much straight away at the beginning of the second half, taking his tally for 2014 alone to 12 goals, second only to the now-misfiring Messi. The man from Donostia had several chances to complete his hat-trick but was foiled by man-of-funny-name Willy in the Málaga goal. Nonetheless, Willy (tee-hee) was not at his best for the third Athletic goal, allowing a tame Ander Herrera shot to spill through his gloves. Feel free to make your own jokes about Willy and a slippery ball - just don't send them to me.
     For the Andalucians, who were pretty dire throughout, the result means they stay on 38 points in 11th, unlikely to threaten either the European places or those in the relegation zone now there's only five games left. They've been pretty shaky under Bernd Schuster this season and were in and around the drop zone for quite a portion of the season.