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All attention will be turned to the Estadio Benito Villamarin in Sevilla as Valencia and Barcelona get set to lock horns in a bid to be crowned 2019 Copa del Rey champions.
Barcelona has already wrapped up the LaLiga campaign in style, winning it for the 26th time in their history and would be looking to add the cup competition to achieve the unique feat of winning the double in consecutive seasons.
Barcelona would enter the match as heavy favourites owing to the superior quality of their players, however, their opponents on the day are more than capable of causing them an upset. In this piece, we shall be highlighting three reasons why Valencia is capable of winning the match.
#3 Barcelona's lack of a recognised centre-forward
With Suarez having been ruled out of the Copa del Rey final due to a meniscal injury sustained at the start of May, Barcelona finds themselves in the less than ideal position of taking to the field against Valencia without an out-and-out central striker.
The club made the decision to send former Barcelona man, Paco Alcacer, out on loan to Dortmund last summer, while Munir El Haddadi refused offers of a contract extension, choosing to go to Sevilla instead, and rather shockingly, Barcelona made the decision to sign midfielder Kevin Prince Boateng to be the backup option to Luis Suarez.
The folly of that decision has been exposed, as the former Ghanaian international has done next to nothing of note almost six months on from his arrival, and while there might be other goal threats in the team, it takes nothing away from the fact that Barcelona needs other options in front of goal.
Even though Messi is more than capable of bearing Barcelona's goalscoring burden on his own, there have been instances in the past of him having an off-day, and this is where Luis Suarez would have come in handy.
The absence of the Uruguayan and any other goalscorer of note (aside Messi) could turn out to be detrimental to Barcelona's chances of victory.
#2 Complacency could set in
As indicated, Barcelona is the overwhelming favourite to triumph in the match. Their history, calibre of players, and recent dominance of this competition guarantee that.
However, they were also favourites to progress to the final of this season's Champions League having posted a 3-0 first-leg advantage over Liverpool as well as last season against AS Roma, but in rather shocking scenes, La Blaugrana failed to press home their advantage, crumbling in the face of pressure when everything was seemingly set for them to triumph.
Barcelona's superiority could see them enter the match with a feeling of invincibility, effectively seeing themselves as victors before a ball is kicked.
Football is a game of 11 men apiece and while Barcelona might have better players, Valencia can take solace in the fact that the Catalans have a history of being complacent when the odds are stacked in their favour, and their status as underdogs could see them triumph, as football is a game where anything can happen.
#1 Valencia would be more motivated to get their hands on the trophy
Barcelona are record winners of the Copa del Rey, having triumphed in Spain's oldest football competition a total of 30 times, while they have also won the cup in each of the last four seasons consecutively and won the LaLiga title eight times in the last 11 seasons.
By contrast, Valencia is without a major honour since 2008 when they won the Copa del Rey, which signifies that Los Che has gone over a decade without any trophy of note.
Valencia is one of the biggest club sides historically in Spain and this long trophyless drought is one which must not sit well with their fanbase.
Given their recent dominance in this competition, the impetus to go all out for victory on the part of the Barcelona players would not be as high as their Valencia counterparts who would be ultra motivated to end their club's long wait for a major trophy, and this could spur them on to go the extra mile to achieve victory.
