Two days queue to go to the cathedral

Nice to see that despite the Spanish FC insisting on a home and away match format the Kings Cup still generates such excitement. No these guys are not sleeping over in the queue for AC/DC tickets (that was last year and boy was it worth it), it's the return leg of the last 16 of the Spanish Cup, not even the quarter final stage!

After an heroic (boring if you ask Barça fans) 0-0 draw at the Camp Nou without World Cup winning forward Fernando Llorente, the Basque contenders think they have a real chance of knocking out World heavyweight Champions. The return of Llorente, who has headed 7 of his 11 league goals, is a massive boost that is offset by the loss of their centre-har pairing of San Jose and Amorebieta (what a lovely roll off the tongue name). It was the big No.5 who received a red card for a heavy challenge on Iniesta in their San Mames meeting that led to Andres Iniesta being booed off the pitch here last September.

FC Barcelona will be without Maxwell, but Puyol looks likely to be fit enough to play a part in what should be a fairly physical game. He missed the Levante game after picking up a knock in the Catalunya Christmas match v Honduras. New signing from PSV, Ibrahim Afellay has also made the trip although Pep will have to send 2 of a 20 man squad to the stands before the game. We may get another chance to see the exciting movement of Thiago in midfield in the second half, he helped change the game v Levante in the second half and resembled a Masia-made hybrid of Messi and Xavi (special metion to Xavi's record-breaking 550th appearance in a Barça shirt tonight). Talking of shirts apparently next season the Men in White will face the Men in Black as FCB go to the dark side for the first time ever.

History tells us that Atheltic have not beaten FCB in a meaningful game in the cathedral of football (Athletic's gound's nickname) since 2000. We won't count the one win since then as it was May 19th, 2006, just two days after FCB beat Arsenal, their next CL opponents, in the Paris Final.

Prediction:

Athletic Club Bilbao 1-3 FCB

Athletic will huff and puff (maybe even score the opener), but not blow the house down in the opening 20 minutes before the defending champions go into the quarterfinals.