King’s Cup quarters: A Barcelona derby and hope or despair for Zidane

Madrid, Jan. 16 (IANS): The first leg ties of the Spanish King’s Cup knockout football tournament will be played over the coming two days with some fascinating ties on offer. Perhaps the most interesting is the Barcelona derby between Espanyol and FC Barcelona on Wednesday night.
Thursday sees crisis-hit Real Madrid pursue their best chance of silverware this season as they make the short trip to Leganes. Last Saturday’s home defeat to Villarreal means Zidane could be perilously close to the sack and with rumours over Cristiano Ronaldo’s future also doing the rounds, Madrid need a good win, reports Xinhua news agency.
They have a huge advantage, not only in terms of budget over Leganes, but also in freshness, because while Madrid played on Saturday afternoon, Leganes didn’t play their league game until Monday night and have very little time to recover ahead of one of the most important matches in their history.
Zidane has played fringe players in recent Cup ties, but with the league title out of sight it remains to see if he will do the same on Thursday.
Reigning Cup holders, Barcelona are once again without forward Ousmane Dembele, who suffered a muscle injury on Sunday, while new signging Phillipe Coutinho is still recovering from a hamstring issue and fellow new recruit Yerry Mina is not considered ready for his first team debut.
Barcelona travel across town with a nine-point lead at the top of the table, but Barcelona derbies are always tense affairs between two sides which have no love between them.
Wednesday also sees Atletico Madrid entertain Sevilla in the Wanda Metropolitano Stadium in a game which will certainly see Diego Costa leading the Atletico attack after his suspension in the league win in Eibar on Saturday. Sevilla are in a crisis of form and results with four defeats in their last five league matches and the side have not improved since Vincenzo Montella replaced Eduardo Berizzo as first team coach.
Last season’s beaten finalists, Alaves have recovered drastically since Abelardo Fernandez took over as first team coach, but their recovery will be tested by a visit to Valencia’s Mestalla Stadium.
Alaves have won 6 out of 8 games since Abelardo took over, while Valencia remain third in the La Liga and have won their last three matches in all competitions.