Barca boon ahead of Blues clash
Barcelona's El Clasico with Real Madrid at the Nou
Camp has been brought forward to April 21, giving the Blaugrana more
time to prepare for their Champions League semi-final with Chelsea.
The high-profile Primera Liga clash, which takes place between the two legs
of the European semi-finals, has been moved from Sunday to Saturday by the
Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF).
Barcelona travel to Stamford Bridge to face Chelsea in the first leg of
their Champions League meeting three days earlier on Wednesday April 18, with
the return fixture on Tuesday April 24.
The rescheduling of El Clasico to the Saturday by the RFEF has given
defending European champions Barca an extra day to recover.
Chelsea will also play on the Saturday before the second leg, but the
English team's efforts to rearrange their FA Cup semi-final with Tottenham on
the Sunday prior to the first leg fell on deaf ears.
Blues boss Roberto di Matteo said: "I'm very disappointed that common
sense hasn't prevailed in this. Obviously, they [the FA] didn't take into
consideration anything that we said.
"Barca will have one more day to recover than us and it might give them
a little advantage."
Meanwhile, Madrid face Bayern Munich in the other semi-final on April 17 and
25.
A statement on Madrid's website read: "Real Madrid will face Barcelona
at the Nou Camp on Saturday, April 21 at 2000 in the 35th round of the
season."
No comments:
Post a Comment