Football
Dermot Corrigan, Madrid correspondent 9y

Barcelona name Luis Suarez and Javier Mascherano in Copa squad

Barcelona coach Luis Enrique has named his strongest possible squad for Wednesday's Copa del Rey semi-final second leg at Villarreal.

The coach has included both Luis Suarez and Javier Mascherano, even though they are a booking away from missing the final should Barca progress.

They travel to El Madrigal with a 3-1 advantage from the first leg, and the only minor surprise is the exclusion of centre-back Marc Bartra, who had a difficult game at Granada on Saturday.

Luis Enrique told his prematch news conference: "It does matter to me that Luis Suarez and Mascherano are on yellows. It's something I'll take into consideration.

"We won't be holding out for a draw. We'll take the game seriously and play our usual attacking football."

Villarreal come into the game having produced recent impressive performances, giving Barcelona a scare before losing 3-2 at the Camp Nou in La Liga and drawing 1-1 at Real Madrid on Sunday.

Yellow Submarine coach Marcelino told his news conference that his players could overturn their two goal deficit, but warned: "We must be very intelligent, not just play with our hearts.

"We must win every ball and not think about the final, but the moment. We will defend together and, in attack, be precise and quick."

Athletic Bilbao travel to Espanyol in Wednesday's other second leg, with the tie tightly balanced after the first leg at San Mames finished 1-1.

The Copa final will be played on May 30, a week after the La Liga season ends and a week before the Champions League final.

However, the venue has yet to be decided and Catalan daily Sport claimed that Barcelona will request that the game takes place at Real Madrid's Bernabeu.

Los Blancos, however, are unlikely to welcome that idea, especially as an all-Catalan match between Barcelona and Espanyol or a Catalan against Basque clash between Barca and Athletic would be likely to have certain political connotations.

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