Barça are heading down the stretch and still in contention for all three major trophies. The month of April will be a grueling one with Barça forced to focus on remaining in the hunt for the league crown, face their arch enemy in the Copa del Rey Final and try to get past Atletico Madrid in the Champions League to advance to the Semi-Finals. Barça will kick off April Fool’s Day by hosting Atletico Madrid at the Camp Nou. One can only hope that Barça end the month on a good note and not by feeling like fools.
Barça’s league schedule in April will see them play Real Betis, Granada, Athletic Bilbao and Villarreal. The last two league matches are the ones to worry about, although Granada away could be a banana peel for the club. Barça’s league woes stemmed from some surprising performances away such as their loss to Valladolid and they cannot afford to drop anymore points to on the road, or at home for that matter.
Fortunately, those matches will be on the weekend. Unfortunately, Barça won’t be enjoying much rest with midweek games in between. They will be facing Atletico Madrid today and next week. If they do defeat Atletico and advance to the Semi-Finals of the Champions, they will have to play twice more in the final two weeks of April.
Meanwhile, Barça will face Real Madrid in the middle of all these fixtures when they play in the Copa del Rey Final on April 16th in Valencia. Barça surely won’t have much time to rest but that also means Barça cannot afford anymore hiccups along the way. Hopefully they will defeat Atletico today by a big margin to give themselves a breather in the second leg and not make it more complicated on themselves.
Tata Martino rotated players left and right for this time of the year. Last year, Barça were limping towards the finish. As of now, they seem rejuvenated with a five game winning streak which had not happened prior to the winter break. Let’s see if their April performances will lead to May glory.
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