Barcelona - Zaragoza: Wednesday 4pm EST

By: Isaiah | September 25th, 2007

Naturally the sports media and even Barca’s official site is lauding Wednesday’s matchup with Zaragoza as the battle of the Militos. They should be playing relatively near each other, if not specifically matching up continuously. I’m under the impression that Diego plays on the right side most of the time, so maybe they will be chilling out together a lot, discussing whatever it is brothers discuss while they try very, very hard to embarrass the hell out of each other in professional sports games. After all, everyone needs something to hold over the other during Thanksgiving meals.*

A quick statistical comparison:

Zaragoza’s away record includes a loss to Murcia on the opening weekend and a draw at Athletic on the 15th. They’re coming off a 2-1 victory over Osasuna, a team Barcelona drew with in Pamplona 0-0 during Jornada 3. So far, Barcelona are undefeated at home, having won 3-1 against Athletic Bilbao and 2-1 against Sevilla.

The official squad for Wednesday list is the same as it was against Sevilla with one exception:

Valdés, Jorquera, Henry, Xavi, Zambrotta, Iniesta, Abidal, Oleguer, Márquez, Deco, Touré, Thuram, Sylvinho, Milito, Messi, Ezquerro, Giovani and Bojan.

Santi Ezquerro replaces Gudjohnsen as the striker who won’t get used, so that must be fun for him. Ronaldinho is missing from the official list as well, meaning I expect the same lineup to start Wednesday’s game as started Saturday’s game against Sevilla.

Valdés, Zambrotta, Marquez, Milito, Abidal, Touré, Xavi, Iniesta, Deco, Messi, Henry.

It’s possible that we’ll see Gio Dos Santos starting for Iniesta, but I doubt it, especially after Iniesta had such a good game against Sevilla. Having found a measure of form in two consecutive victories, there seems little reason to expect Rijkaard to fundamentally alter the system that has defeated far better teams than Zaragoza.

Official prediction: 2-0 Barcelona. Goals by Messi and Henry.

*Whaddya mean you don’t have Thanksgiving in Argentina!?