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In the fourth, the new Spanish Super Cup has a Real Madrid-Barcelona final tonight (8:00 p.m., Movistar), 5,000 kilometers from Spain and under the scrutiny of the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor for the negotiations that brought football to Arabia and 40 million dollars. euros a year to the Federation and four to Kosmos, Gerard Piqué's company.
And despite everything, it is a transcendental classic, particularly for the project of Xavi Hernández, who has been on the bench for 14 months without winning a title, and whose president, Joan Laporta, praised his efforts last year despite lose in the semifinals against Madrid.
The team seemed to be beginning to take shape, but that body still lacks cups, and there are fewer and fewer players in the squad who have won titles with Barça, as the coach recalled yesterday: "I see it as an advantage, a great opportunity ", Said yesterday.
In his appearances these days in Riyadh, Xavi has revealed two concerns about his team: that they are not able to close games that start out with good control and that the players he has no longer have the habit of winning that his generation had.
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For the Barca coach, this point is particularly relevant tonight, because Madrid will be up front: “The psychological aspect is essential.
They have a point advantage because they have played more finals.
The illusion has to help us.
We have to believe it.
Mentally be prepared and cool, control our emotions against a strong Madrid”.
On the other bench, Ancelotti moves more serene, like before the Champions League final in Paris, when he said that he looked at those players with so many matches like this, and then he would calm down.
Also because, as he said yesterday, he considers that his soccer players do not have a full belly: "It will never be full."
And he pointed to the same competitive advantage that Xavi fears: “They have a very high mental quality.
And we are in a club that is very demanding.
It doesn't let you think you have a full belly."
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The security that the mental consistency of his team gives him does not prevent him from continuing to point out what worries him: "The main aspect that we are considering at this moment is to defend better," he insisted.
Tonight's classic is a definitive test for the concerns and strengths of both, in a competition that last year marked the future of the rest of the course.
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