On Saturday, 4 January, Barbastro will play Barcelona at home. This is a match of 1/16 finals of the King's Cup. Barbastro is a club of the fourth strongest Spanish league. Obviously, there will be rotation from the Catalans, who are already preparing for the Super Cup.

Barbastro even in their league is in sixteenth place. The team is seriously threatened with relegation to the fifth division. The modest amateur club has only five wins in seventeen matches.

At the same time, underestimating the outsider is a mistake. Another Catalan club, Espanyol, has already paid for such a big sensation. The hosts won with a score of 2:0, closing the odds at 10.00. It is clear that for the cup tournament Barbastro has a special mood.

Incidentally, December came out relatively positive. The outsider closed the year with a winless streak of three meetings. They managed to pick up seven points and pull themselves up to the relegation places.

Barcelona, on the other hand, went into the break in very mixed feelings. The club managed to lose two games in a row in La Liga for the first time in the season, with three defeats in a run of five meetings. Another nightmarish fact is that all the defeats were at home.

In all three matches, there were enormous difficulties with realisation, but the best in terms of quality was surprisingly the game against Atletico. Barcelona created 2.5 xG chances, scoring only one goal. The opponent, on the other hand, responded with two goals. A typical Atletico victory with no clear scoring chances. A very strong blow to the psychology. Perhaps the break will just help to get back on the right track.

The main difficulty now is injuries. The first loss is certainly Lamine Yamal. The team has to look for a replacement for the leader, but all this is relevant for higher level matches. Young players and performers from the deep reserve will come out against Barbastro. Goalkeeper Wojciech Szczęsny will probably play his long-awaited match.

Unfortunately, before the game came the sad news about Dani Olmo. The club could not declare him due to financial constraints. Hans-Dieter Flick has too many problems. A busy calendar with as many as four tournaments in January.

It is clear that even in this situation Barbastro will not become an obstacle on the way to the 1/8 finals of the King's Cup. At the same time, a big rout is unlikely. The hosts have shown that they can defend with dignity against clubs from the elite. This is still not quite a passable opponent. The hosts are unlikely to think about attacking, but they can concede less than four goals. Especially since Barcelona's squad will be quite experimental. Given the injuries and the situation with Olmo, even the rotation players need to be protected. A minimal victory for the favourite is not ruled out.