This Thursday, February 16, Barcelona and Unicaja will meet in the quarterfinals for a place in the semifinals of the Copa del Rey, which in this 2023 edition takes place in the city of Badalona. In this classic duel of the second meeting of the opening day of the KO tournament, both teams will seek the pass to the semifinals.
The team that manages to win will face the winner of Real Madrid - Valencia in the semifinals, which will also take place this Thursday, February 16. Barcelona, which last year was proclaimed champion after beating the whites in the grand final, is the team that Unicaja has faced the most times throughout its history, a total of 134 games.
Barça and the Malaga team have met a total of seven times in the Copa del Rey. Ibon Navarro's team will try to end their unfavorable streak after losing all the Cup duels against the Blaugrana team, five in the quarterfinals and two in the semifinals.
The last game that faced them in the tournament was in its 2021 edition, in which Barça was the winner after taking the people from Malaga to extra time. Unicaja's only casualty is Yankuba Sima; the center injured the adductor in his left leg against Baskonia.
Sarunas Jasikevicius, Barcelona's coach, stated that the team arrives prepared for the match, although qualifying that they must be very attentive against Unicaja and try to prevent them from running on the counterattack.
"We arrived at a good time, this is clear. The 40 minutes on Thursday night matter, clearly it is better to arrive well but you have to show it on the track and know how to manage your emotions. We arrived well but in the Cup you start from scratch," he declared. Jasikevicius at a press conference.
The meeting will take place at the Badalona Olympic Stadium, at 9:30 p.m., and can be followed live on Movistar Plus. The service offers all the competition live through
