Barça-Levante: the first title of the year is played in Butarque

The final of the 2024 Super Cup aims to be one of the most attractive duels with two rivals who arrive at the event in the best conditions.

Oliver Thansan
Oliver Thansan
19 January 2024 Friday 09:25
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Barça-Levante: the first title of the year is played in Butarque

The final of the 2024 Super Cup aims to be one of the most attractive duels with two rivals who arrive at the event in the best conditions. Barça and Levante will fight today (8pm, La2) to continue increasing their record in a tournament that both have won on more than one occasion.

Barça, winner of the last two editions of the tournament, remains a team impossible to beat. He has won every game he has played this season, in the League, Champions League, Cup and Super Cup and his offensive potential scares any rival. On the other hand, Levante is second in League F, tied on points with Real Madrid. José Luis Sánchez Vera's team is one of the teams in the best shape on the Spanish scene and will sell their skin dearly.

“It is a team with a very brave and attractive proposal. He plays with great intensity and with the desire to attack, to subdue the rival. In terms of intention, it is a proposal similar to ours,” praised Jonatan Giráldez about his rival in the final. For the FC Barcelona coach, individual duels can determine who wins a final that he believes will be “very attractive for the viewer.” "That we all predict an attractive final makes me happy," confessed José Luis Sánchez Vera. "It says a lot about us," said the Levante coach, who did not hide the cards from him: "We are not going to wait back. We are going to try to take possession away from Barça."

José Luis Sánchez Vera is one of the best coaches in League F and his duel on the bench against Jonatan Giráldez predicts a great final. Although if we look at precedents, Levante has not won a game against Barcelona since 2017. Of course, the Granota club is the second most successful in this tournament with two Super Cups in its showcases (1997 and 2000) and a runner-up finish, in 2021, the year in the one that lost the final against an Atlético de Madrid team led by Sánchez Vera at that time.

Barça, which has won three of the last four editions, the last two consecutively, aspires to achieve an unprecedented record: “I think no one has won four titles in a single season. We want to continue breaking records and that means beating Levante,” said Irene Paredes in the preview. And Barça has never surpassed three titles. The year of their first triplet (2021), they fell in the semifinals of the Super Cup, and last year they were unable to fight for the Queen's Cup due to Geyse's improper alignment in the round of 16.

Barça and Levante are playing today for the first title of the season at the Butarque stadium (Leganés). A feud that we hope has a better image than the semifinals, especially the first one between Levante and Atlético in which there were not even a thousand spectators in the stands. “If I ask who is coming with me to the movies, then maybe I can get two or three people to come. Well, in football it's the same, the more you organize and plan, the easier it is for more people to come,” Giráldez reflected. An opinion shared by Sánchez Vera. And once again, the Federation has been highly questioned for having communicated the venue for the Final Four of the Super Cup with such short notice (two weeks) that it has not given many fans time to organize the trip. Levante's sponsors have chartered two free buses to take the Granota fans to Leganés, so a great atmosphere is expected in Butarque.

FC Barcelona goalkeeper Sandra Paños left the team's last training session in Las Rozas. The woman from Alicante was seen talking to the doctor and showing discomfort in her foot and finally she withdrew from the practice so she is a doubt for the final. Apart from the goalkeeper, Giráldez has brought in the rest of the injured in anticipation of winning the first title of the year. Alexia Putellas, Jana Fernàndez, Fridolina Rolfö and Mapi León have traveled to Madrid in the last few hours to join the rest of the group.