Atletico Madrid have advantage over Barcelona before Copa del Rey semi-final thanks to La Liga | OneFootball

La Liga has stirred yet another controversy after releasing the schedule for Matchday 29, which will be held just a few days before Barcelona’s big encounter against Atletico Madrid in the Copa del Rey.

Unfortunately for the Blaugrana, they seem to be on the losing end of the latest fixture arrangement, which favours Atletico Madrid.

Big advantage for Atletico Madrid

As reported by SPORT, Barcelona are not too happy with La Liga’s schedule, primarily because of the fact that they will have 24 hours less to recover compared to Atletico Madrid before their highly anticipated Copa del Rey semi-final second leg.

Hansi Flick’s men are set to play Girona in a demanding Catalan derby on Sunday, March 30, at Montjuic.

Meanwhile, Diego Simeone’s side will take on Espanyol on Saturday, March 29, thus giving them a full extra day of rest ahead of the second leg Copa del Rey semifinal encounter.

Simeone’s men have an advantage ahead of the Copa Del Rey clash vs Barcelona. (Photo by Florencia Tan Jun/Getty Images)

This is extremely consequential considering the fact that Barça’s tie with Atletico Madrid is evenly poised after the two sides played out an entertaining 4-4 draw in the first leg.

Other than the semifinal draw in Copa del Rey, it must be noted that Barcelona are also involved in a tight contest with Atletico Madrid for the La Liga title.

Currently, the standings remain incredibly tight, with Barcelona leading the table with 57 points, just one ahead of Atletico Madrid (56) and three ahead of Real Madrid (54).

With all three teams still competing on multiple fronts, including La Liga and the Copa del Rey, rest and recovery time between matches could be crucial in determining the outcome of the season.

But there’s very little Barcelona can do at the moment and it is now up to Hansi Flick to manage his troops a tad bit better than his Atletico Madrid counterpart.