Atletico Madrid vs Barcelona: Copa del Rey – team news, start time, lineups
All to know as La Liga leaders Barcelona clash with Atletico Madrid in the first leg of their Copa del Rey semifinal. Listen to this article Listen to this article | 5 mins info Who: Atletico Madrid vs BarcelonaWhat: Copa del Rey semifinalWhere: Metropolitano Stadium in Madrid, SpainWhen: Thursday at 9pm (20:00 GMT)How to follow: Al Jazeera Sport will have live text and photo coverage of the Copa del Rey semifinal. Spanish football titans Atletico and Barcelona will lock horns on Thursday in Madrid with nothing less than a place in the Copa del Rey final on the line. The match is the opening semifinal leg of the competition. The return leg will be played at Barcelona’s Nou Camp Stadium on March 4. Who are the defending Copa champions? Barcelona are the reigning champions after they won the 2025 final 3-2 against Real Madrid for a record-extending 32nd Copa del Rey title. The match was played on April 26 at La Cartuja Stadium in Seville. There has been no repeat Copa champion since Barcelona won it four years straight from 2015 to 2018. When did Barcelona and Atletico last meet? The teams last played in a La Liga fixture on December 2 with Atletico – arriving at Camp Nou on a seven-game winning run in all competitions – striking first when Spanish international Alex Baena put the visitors up inside 20 minutes. But Barcelona rallied strongly with goals by Raphinha, Dani Olmo and Ferran Torres, handing Madrid their first La Liga defeat in more than three months with a resounding 3-1 result. Ferran Torres, centre, scores Barcelona’s third goal in their 3-1 victory against Atletico Madrid on December 2, 2025 [Nacho Doce/Reuters] How did Atletico and Barcelona reach the semifinals? Atletico Madrid advanced to the last four of the Copa del Rey with an emphatic 5-0 win at Real Betis as new signing Ademola Lookman scored on his Rojiblanco debut. Advertisement Goals by Lamine Yamal and Ronald Araujo helped Barcelona reach the semifinal with a nervy 2-1 win at Albacete. The defending champions were pushed to the end in a tight quarterfinal clash by their second division opponents, who stunned Real Madrid in the previous round. Head-to-head Barcelona and Atletico have faced off 249 times in official competition with the first match dating back to April 19, 1925, in the Copa del Rey. Blaugrana holds the head-to-head advantage with 113 victories compared with Madrid’s 79 wins with 57 draws. Atletico’s team news Manager Diego Simeone may be without duo Marc Pubill (illness) and Nicolas Gonzalez (physical discomfort). Both are listed as questionable, and either could still play a part against Barca. Johnny Cardoso is out after the American sustained a low-grade muscle injury training before Thursday’s Copa del Rey quarterfinal against Real Betis. Midfielder Pablo Barrios remains on the sidelines with a thigh injury. Predicted lineup (4-4-2): Oblak (goalkeeper); Llorente, Pubill, Hancko, Ruggeri; Simeone, Mendoza, Koke, Baena; Griezmann, Lookman Barcelona’s Marcus Rashford, right, will not be joining his teammate Robert Lewandowski on the forward line against Atletico Madrid [File: Albert Gea/Reuters] Barcelona’s team news In a last-minute blow, Marcus Rashford is out of the Atletico clash after receiving a knee knock during Barcelona’s 3-0 win over Real Mallorca on Saturday, according to the official FC Barcelona website. Head coach Hansi Flick could also be without Frenkie de Jong (groin), who is listed as doubtful. Teenager Marc Bernal would be the most likely replacement for the Dutchman in the central midfield role. Brazilian superstar Raphinha (thigh injury) is close to a return but will miss this fixture. Pedri (hamstring) and Gavi (knee) continue to be sidelined with longer-term injuries. Predicted lineup (4-3-3): J Garcia (goalkeeper); Kounde, Cubarsi, E Garcia, Balde; Olmo, Bernal, Lopez; Yamal, Lewandowski, Torres Form Guide: Atletico Madrid: W-L-D-W-L (all competitions, most recent result last) Barcelona: W-W-W-W-W Which team has won the most Copa del Rey titles? Barcelona: 32 Athletic Bilbao: 24 Real Madrid: 20 Atletico Madrid: 10 Valencia: eight Is the Copa del Rey the oldest Spanish competition? Yes. Founded in 1903 and organised by the Royal Spanish Football Federation, the Copa del Rey is the oldest Spanish football competition played at a national level. The Copa del Rey winners qualify for the next season’s UEFA Europa League. If the winner has already qualified for Europe through their La Liga ladder position, the Europa League spot is awarded to the next highest placed team that has not yet qualified. The Copa del Rey trophy [File: Fran Santiago/Getty Images] Adblock test (Why?)
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Why is the issue of Syrian prisoner repatriation from Lebanon complicated?
Beirut, Lebanon – The Lebanese and Syrian governments have reached a deal to repatriate about 300 Syrian inmates in Lebanese prisons back to their home country in a move that could pave the way for better relations between the two neighbours. The issue of Syrian prisoners in Lebanon has been a priority for Damascus since the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in December 2024. Relations between the two countries have long been marked by what many Lebanese describe as nearly 30 years of occupation and a tutelage rule by Syria over Lebanon, which ended when Syria withdrew its troops in 2005. Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list About 2,400 Syrian prisoners are currently in Lebanese prisons. Some are held on “terrorism” charges while others are held for links to attacks against the Lebanese army. But most have never been tried despite having spent years in jail, largely due to a myriad of issues, including political gridlock, judicial strikes and general political indifference. And while the deal reached on Friday may signal the beginning of a new relationship between Syria and Lebanon – one built on mutual respect rather than Syria’s direct or indirect control of the smaller state on its western border – it did not come about without any public controversy. In Syrian eyes, many of the prisoners are being held for political rather than judicial reasons. The government of President Ahmed al-Sharaa believes they are in prison mostly due to the influence of the former al-Assad regime and its Hezbollah allies in Lebanon. Advertisement But for many Lebanese, anyone accused of attacks against the Lebanese armed forces should not be released. “Lebanon has long insisted that anyone Syrian or otherwise accused of committing serious crimes against the Lebanese army should not be extradited,” David Wood, the senior Lebanon analyst at the International Crisis Group, told Al Jazeera. “That has been one key obstacle to resolving this prisoner agreement up until now.” Political prisoners? Lebanese-Syrian relations have long been complex. Under Syrian President Hafez al-Assad and later his son Bashar, Syrian forces controlled Lebanon from 1976 to 2005. Even after Syrian troops withdrew from Lebanon, Syria maintained influence over Lebanon via its allies there, including the political and military group Hezbollah. When the 2011 Syrian uprising began and was subsequently repressed by Bashar al-Assad’s regime, Syria’s border with Lebanon soon became a hotspot for the transportation of people – both fighters and refugees – weapons and drugs. Under the agreement signed by Lebanese and Syrian officials, about 300 Syrian prisoners in Lebanese jails will be transferred to Syria in the next three months [Wael Hamzeh/EPA] In Lebanon, the Syrian war had a strong impact. It spilled over into clashes in the northern city of Tripoli; the Battle of Abra, which involved firebrand anti-Assad sheikh Ahmad al-Assir and Lebanese-Palestinian pop star Fadel Shaker; battles with Hezbollah and the Lebanese army on one side and ISIL (ISIS) and al-Qaeda-aligned groups on the other; and attacks on Beirut’s southern suburbs. In the intervening years, hundreds of Syrians were arrested by Lebanese authorities and held in Lebanon’s overcrowded prisons. When the al-Assad regime fell, the new Syrian government quickly looked to reframe the relationship with Lebanon, expressing an interest in building ties based on mutual respect and interests. Among Damascus’s priorities were delineating their shared border and economic and security cooperation. But it also prioritised the repatriation of Syrians in Lebanese prisons. “The allegation from Damascus is that in many cases the reason for [imprisonment] is political and specifically due to perceived ties between the inmates and groups that were opposed to the former regime of Bashar al-Assad,” Wood said. In its view, “it was actually Assad’s Lebanese allies who conspired to make sure that these people were imprisoned in Lebanon.” By that logic, the fall of al-Assad and the weakening of Hezbollah after Israel’s 2024 war on Lebanon meant that these prisoners should be released. Advertisement Some Lebanese disagree and see the issue as more of a grey area. Even if the Syrian prisoners in question had fought Hezbollah, it had been at a time when the Shia group had been coordinating with the Lebanese army – and, for many Lebanese, fighting the army is a red line. An important step On Friday, the agreement was signed with a number of Lebanese ministers present, including Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, Deputy Prime Minister Tarek Mitri and the two countries’ justice ministers. “This is a very important first step on the road of a comprehensive treatment regarding Syrian prisoners in Lebanese prisons,” Mitri said to reporters on Friday. Syrian Justice Minister Mazhar al-Wais said: “This step will boost existing confidence, and we hope that relations will progress more.” The agreement reportedly stipulates that over the next three months, about 300 prisoners will be repatriated to Syria and those serving time for serious crimes, such as rape or murder for example, must have served 10 or more years of their sentences in Lebanese prisons to be eligible for repatriation. Lebanese prisoners, such as al-Assir, are not included in the deal. But other issues remain. Among them are Lebanon’s backlogged judicial system and issues related to Lebanese inmates in Syrian prisons. Only about 750 Syrian prisoners out of the 2,400 have been convicted. That means roughly 65 percent of prisoners are not eligible for repatriation yet. Fadel Abdulghany of the Syrian Network for Human Rights described this as a “two-track” problem. On his personal website, Abdulghany noted that the transfer of prisoners convicted with final sentences can be carried out with a “swift step”. However, for those who have yet to be convicted, the issue is not as straightforward. A mechanism for pretrial detention has not yet been agreed by the respective authorities. “This is not merely a Syrian issue but one that touches the very structure of the Lebanese criminal justice system,” Abdulghany wrote. “Therefore, transferring convicts will not resolve the problem, because the root cause is the slow pace of procedures in
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