The build up has is moving through the gears now as the Copa del Rey final is a little more than 36 hours away – stay tuned to Realmadridnews,com as we will be there covering all the action.
But let’s take a look at what the two main Madrid sports papers have to say this morning. Marca goes with Iker Casillas on the front cover, and looks at his record in finals. The World Cup winner will be appearing in his eighth final for Madrid, and he’ll be looking to record his six win. The only two finals he has lost as a Los Blancos player while starting the match were the Supercup against Galatasary and the Intercontinenal Cup against Boca Juniors in 2000/01. He had already won the Champions League final against Valencia.
Since then he has played in numerous finals, and been part of various winning teams. In 2002 he won the Champions League final against Bayer Leverkusen, and months later he was part of the side that won the Supercup and Intercontinental Cup against Feyernoord and Olimpia respectively. His last appearance in a final was in the Copa del Rey in 2011, when Los Blancos saw off Barcelona 1-0.
There is also a particular focus in Gareth Bale and Neymar ahead of the match. Cristiano Ronaldo is injured and will sit out the action, while Leo Messi has been out of sorts in recent weeks. The papers say the Copa del Rey will be the time for Real’s and Barca’s most high profile summer signings to step up and really make the difference.
Finally, although he is missing the match tomorrow, AS says Ronaldo is working five hours a day in his rehab in order to be fit in time to take on Bayern Munich next week in the first leg of the Champions League semi final.
