The Copa del Rey final puts the great classic of world football on hold

Real Madrid and F. C. Barcelona will face each other in the final of the Copa del Rey on 26th April at 21:30 in the Seville stadium of La Cartuja.

The Federation's business ventures left behind by Rubiales have increased its capacity to 70,000 spectators and turned it into a stadium that is at least useful, leaving behind the wasteland it had been for decades. Each team will have around 24,000 tickets for the great football festival that recalls the one in 2014, with that goal by Bale at Mestalla.

A classic among classics, who knows, because two weeks after that game, Real Madrid and Barcelona will face each other in the decisive game for the league and, perhaps, 20 days later they will meet again in a historic game in Munich: the Champions League final. The great battle of world football because never before has this game been played in the final of the European club competition. 

But before that, there is the cup final in which Barcelona go into the game as favourites after getting back to their brilliant form of the first part of the league season and destroying Atlético de Madrid. The four-all draw in the first leg was the last bit of good football left in Simeone's team, who played a terrible game in the return leg at the Metropolitano in front of their fans. 

It was a disastrous first half in which they allowed Barça to take control, and they finished the game in the second half with no options and without even trying to score. Simeone is once again responsible for this Atletico debacle that leaves them without options in the league, in the Champions League, and without the longed-for final of the Copa del Rey, which at least could have given them the chance to win a title this season. 

That conservative style, a demotivated team and a message that no longer resonates in the dressing room have taken the Rojiblancos back to the final stages of last season when some voices were saying that Simeone should leave the club. This year the squad had much more quality with names like Julián Álvarez and Sørloth, but they have been unable to perform at a better level. Griezmann is no longer there, the midfield does not dominate the ball and the defence makes Oblak a worse goalkeeper. 

Barça once again played a boring brand of football that tied Atlético down in the first half and sunk them with a goal from Ferran Torres. Hansi Flick is the only good thing Laporta has done for the club and he is the one who makes the team work and go on to play in a cup final for which they are favourites. In the middle of all that, there are league games where they cannot afford to fail and Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League, which can take them to the semi-finals without too much effort. The German coach has managed to avoid all the mud thrown by the club's president and ensure that football is the talk of the town in Barcelona. 

They will face Real Madrid. Carlo Ancelotti's team reached the Copa del Rey final after a 4-4 draw at the Santiago Bernabéu against Real Sociedad in a disastrous match for the Whites. They could have been out of the final after going 1-3 down, but Rudiger scored the equaliser in the 115th minute. The usual heroics of the Whites at the Bernabéu once again took them to a final.

With nothing at stake and with excessive accumulated fatigue, the Whites are back in a cup final after beating Barça in the last one in that game at Mestalla. 

The semi-final second leg was their 50th game this season, plus everything that lies ahead in the league, the Champions League and the final itself. This mysterious Real Madrid team is capable of the best and the worst, although only the worst when they face Barça, as they have lost both their previous encounters, and been thrashed. Until that match, Madrid will have to continue counting the minutes of rest they have between matches and decide whether or not to play. They will also have to face Arsenal in the Champions League quarter-finals, which will decide whether or not Real Madrid have the team to compete for the European title once again.

Atlético de Madrid have resigned themselves to the fact that they are not up there with the two big teams in Spain and it will be the latter who will shine in this final. Then it will be Real Madrid's turn to try to win the Club World Cup, a title they almost always win. They will be playing more for money than for prestige and they will face Atlético, who have managed to qualify for a tournament that Barcelona will have to watch on television.