It will be the match of their lives. That of the players, that of the technicians, that of the fans. The Cacereño receives Real Madrid (9:00 p.m., Príncipe Felipe) in a duel of the round of 32 of the Copa del Rey. And he does it with an unusual expectation. Normal: the most successful team in the history of world football arrives.
Not even the casualties of important players in the Madrid subtracts an iota of interest from the duel. The dean from Extremadura, 104 years of vital endorsement but with few celebrated joys (rather the opposite), will try to surprise Carlo Ancelotti’s team encouraged by almost 15,000 souls. Will it be possible for the CPC to beat Madrid? Some people think so, but more important than the result is the experience of the sporting event, difficult to match and, of course, impossible to compare to any other in the past.
The differences between one and the other seem abysmal even though Benzemá, Kroos, Vinicius, Alaba, Mendy, Courtois and Carvajal stay in Madrid. But this is the Cup and after 90 minutes everything evens out when one of the two opponents is hyper-motivated. That will be the Cacereño, with all available (“miraculously”, says coach Julio Cobos) and aware of his inferiority (“we are facing what is possibly the best team in the world”), a weapon that he will nevertheless try to use in his favor: “We have nothing to lose », pointed out the coach, who will continue with his classic rotations: «Perhaps someone will be surprised, although not those who know me».
The Cacereño has only done one training session in his city after last week’s tour of Nepal. A single session to prepare an appointment that will go down in the history of the green club and that no one wants to miss. Neither on the pitch nor in the stands, where the fans will draw a picture very rarely seen in Príncipe Felipe. Actually, only on two occasions, none of them with the owner of the field as the protagonist. The stadium has doubled its usual capacity and the pitch has been pampered in recent days, but that will not prevent it from being somewhat soft although, as Cobos predicts, “you can play football, although logically it will not be like the Bernabéu”.
Making him uncomfortable and not letting him play will be the goal of the greens. Against Girona they did it. They will try to repeat it against Hazard, Marco Asensio, Rodrygo…
The tickets, a treasure
Madness has taken over everything since chance paired green and white. Requests for tickets have come from all parts of Extremadura. “I have received calls from people I did not even remember,” Cobos recalled in a good mood and aware that the more than 14,000 seats have fallen short. Tickets sold out in three days, three days in which first the new members, then those who have subscribed for the second round (600, the maximum set by the club) and finally the rest of the fans, had to face long queues and many hours of waiting to get hold of a treasure in the form of a town.
better go by bus
The atmosphere will be unique. The deployment of security as well. The club from Cáceres and the institutions recommend the use of public transport to get to the Príncipe Felipe. For this reason, the Cáceres City Council has set up a free bus service for this event. From 6:00 p.m. and with a frequency of 10-15 minutes they will leave from Ruta de la Plata avenue, in front of the Hotel Extremadura. The service will be the same, but in reverse, when the match ends.
