Running a marathon this year has become a commonplace for runners to share their lesser-known race day essentials, including nail clippers and portable chargers, to help you cross the finish line.
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Runners share their lesser-known must-haves for the marathon(Image: Getty Images)
You’re likely to have already organized your race day essentials with the London marathon just two days away. However, runners have been sharing their lesser-known must-haves that helped them get through if they want to top off those extra items they may have forgotten about or have a race coming up later in the year.
What about those little details that may have crossed your mind, though? We are already familiar with running vests, gels, and water packs. We’ve rounded up the top secret hacks that runners swear by to help them win long distance races, as well as locations that offer next-day delivery if you’re looking to order a last-minute pre-marathon product.
READ MORE: Molly-Mae finally shares her most recent hair project, which she has been secretly teasing for months.
Lip balm
Lip balm was one of the unexpected “must-haves” TikTok users asked their followers to bring with them to the marathon this weekend, and the majority of the responses were lip balm.
Although it may seem obvious to some, it can be difficult to forget when you’re busy planning the big day. There is nothing worse than running 26 miles in uncomfortable, peeling, and sunburnt lips, as the comments claimed.
Lip balm was at the top of the list for marathon essentials(Image: Getty Images)
clothing that is not needed
Extra clothing was flagged many times, and for different reasons. A few noted that it is worth rolling up a thin jumper, spare shorts or leggings in case of unpredictable weather conditions, something we’re very used to here in the UK. While a few others stated it’s worth packing a pair of Crocs or sliders to slip into once you’ve finished the race, plus a change of clothes for when you finish.
SHOP RACE-DAY CLOTHES: New Balance Lightweight Touchscreen Warm Running Gloves, £15.18, Interval Packable Running Jacket, £80, and Crocs Classic Slip On Clogs, £49.99.
Wipes/tissues
Nothing will be worse than discovering there is no toilet paper when you race to the toilet. To avoid unpleasant toilet situations, runners advise bringing your own packet of tissues or baby wipes.
After sweating, you can also remove any sticky residue from the gels and salt from your skin.
SHOP WIPES/TISSUES: Pocket Tissue Extra Soft, £4.99, and FreshWipes Antibacterial Body Wipes For Adults, £6.49.
Portable charger
The worst thing about running the last few miles is having your phone go out of charge, according to a runner, because you have no music to listen through. When you finish the race, you’re looking for your friends and family to celebrate by not having an uncharged phone.
If you can fit a portable charger, it’s a must-have. You can attach your phone case directly to your phone case, or choose less bulky ones that are easier to carry.
PORTABLE SHOP CHARGERS: Belkin 5, 000mAh MagSafe Compatible Powerbank & Stand, £29.99, and Anker Nano Power Bank, £19.99, and Stand, £29.99,
An anti-chafe balm can help protect your skin from uncomfortable friction(Image: Body Glide)
Anti-chafe stick
This was probably at the top of your list if you have chafing thighs. However, it’s also useful for thighs; it can also be used to relieve friction on your armpits or the area where your sports bra fits in.
Body Glide Original Anti-Chafe Balm, £19.99, and Megababe Thigh Rescue Anti-Chafe Anti-Friction Stick, £9,60 are two of the anti-chain stick brands sold at SHOP.
Nail shaver
If you’ve done the proper pre-marathon grooming, you’ll probably not need this one because it’s so random. However, it can get pretty uncomfortable and possibly difficult to finish the race if you find yourself with a toenail that won’t stop digging in.
Continue reading the article.
Nail shaver are so small and compact, it can’t hurt to keep a pair packed away in case of a nail emergency.
If you’re running a marathon this year, runners have been sharing their lesser-known race day essentials to help see you through to the finish line, from portable chargers to nail clippers
This article contains affiliate links, we will receive a commission on any sales we generate from it. Learn more
Runners share their lesser-known must-haves for the marathon(Image: Getty Images)
With the London marathon just two days away, it’s likely you’ve already got your race day essentials sorted. However, if you’re looking to top up on those extra items you may have forgotten about or have a race coming up later in the year, runners have been sharing their lesser-known must-haves that helped get them through.
Of course, we already know about running vests, gels, and water packs, but what about those little things that may have slipped your mind? Well, we’ve rounded up the secret hacks runners swear by to see them through long-distance races, plus places that offer next-day delivery if you’re looking to place a last-minute pre-marathon order.
READ MORE: Molly-Mae ‘finally’ shares her latest hair venture she’s been covertly ‘teasing for months’
Lip balm
TikTok user @pagesandmiles_ asked her followers what random ‘must-haves’ she must bring with her to the marathon this weekend, and an overwhelming number of responses were lip balm.
This may seem obvious to some, but when you’re caught up prepping for the big day, it can be easy to forget. And as the comments said, there is nothing worse than running 26 miles with uncomfortable, peeling, and sunburnt lips.
Lip balm was at the top of the list for marathon essentials(Image: Getty Images)
Spare clothes
Extra clothing was flagged many times, and for different reasons. A few noted that it is worth rolling up a thin jumper, spare shorts or leggings in case of unpredictable weather conditions, something we’re very used to here in the UK. While a few others stated it’s worth packing a pair of Crocs or sliders to slip into once you’ve finished the race, plus a change of clothes for when you finish.
SHOP RACE-DAY CLOTHES: Crocs Classic Slip On Clogs, £49.99; Interval Packable Running Jacket, £80; Gymshark Running Leggings, currently £29.40; and New Balance Lightweight Touchscreen Warm Running Gloves, £15.18
Wipes/tissues
Nothing’ll be worse than nipping off to the toilet during the race and realising there’s no toilet paper. Runners have suggested bringing your own packet of tissues or baby wipes to avoid any uncomfortable toilet situations.
The wipes can also be used to clear off any sticky residue from the gels and salt from your skin after sweating.
SHOP WIPES/TISSUES: FreshWipes Antibacterial Body Wipes For Adults, £6.49, and Pocket Tissue Extra Soft, £4.99
Portable charger
A runner stated that reaching the last few miles and having your phone run out of charge is the worst, as you’re left with no music to get through. You also don’t want an uncharged phone when you finish the race and are looking for your friends and family to celebrate.
That’s why a portable charger is a must-have if you can fit it. We’ve found less bulky ones that will be easier to carry or ones that you can attach straight onto your phone case.
SHOP PORTABLE CHARGERS: Anker Nano Power Bank, £19.99 and Belkin 5,000mAh MagSafe Compatible Powerbank & Stand, £29.99
An anti-chafe balm can help protect your skin from uncomfortable friction(Image: Body Glide)
Anti-chafe stick
If you’re prone to chafing thighs, this was probably at the top of your list. But it’s not just handy for thighs; you can apply it to your armpits or where your sports bra digs in, anywhere you need some friction relief.
SHOP ANTI-CHAFE STICKS: Body Glide Original Anti Chafe Balm, £13.99 and Megababe Thigh Rescue Anti-Chafe Anti-Friction Stick, £9.60
Nail clippers
This is a pretty random one, and one that you hopefully won’t need if you’ve done the proper pre-marathon grooming. However, if you find yourself with a toenail that won’t stop digging in, it can get pretty uncomfortable and potentially hard to finish the race.
Article continues below
Nail clippers are so small and compact, it can’t hurt to keep a pair packed away in case of a nail emergency.
Legendary Hollywood icon Al Pacino shared an indepth look into his life where he opened up about his chilhood struggles and death of his close friends growing up
Al Pacino shared an indepth look into his life (Image: Getty Images)
After a career spanning 50 years, legendary Godfather actor Al Pacino will be thanking his lucky stars at turning 85 today. The kid from the wrong side of the tracks calls his entire life a “moon shot” – having survived a tough childhood in the Bronx, where three of his closest gang friends ended up “dead by 30 from heroin”.
After he began drinking at nine, he says even surviving the 1940s was a miracle – crediting his mum for his longevity, after she banned him from roaming the streets after dark with hoods. He says: “I loathed her at the time. But I’m still here because of my mother. I never thanked her for… keeping me away from the path that led to delinquency, danger and violence, to the needle that killed Petey, Cliffy and Bruce.”
READ MORE: ‘Forgotten’ Al Pacino classic film ‘teaches us all to be better people’ on BBC this weekend
Al Pacino opened up about his struggles growing up(Image: Getty Images)
Article continues below
The method actor’s awards shelf boasts an Oscar for Scent of a Woman in 1992, four Golden Globes, three Tonys and two Emmys, but his path to success from street kid to one of the greatest actors of all time is the very stuff of Hollywood epics.
The star, who has never married, shares daughter Julie Marie, 34, with acting coach Jan Tarrant, and twins Anton and Olivia, 22, with Beverly D’Angelo. Then, in 2023, Pacino shocked Hollywood by becoming a father for the fourth time to son, Roman, with ex partner Noor Alfallah, 31.
Calling parenthood a “mini miracle”, the doting father says he wrote his memoir, Sonny Boy, to share his extraordinary life story with his brood. Alfredo James Pacino was born the only child of Italian immigrants in New York’s East Harlem ghetto, on April 25, 1940.
Al and his daughter (Image: FilmMagic, Inc)
Abandoned by his dad Salvatore Pacino, when he was just two-years-old, Pacino – nicknamed Sonny Boy after an Al Jolson song – and his mum, Rose, lived in a series of cheap furnished rooms, before moving into her parents’ tiny South Bronx tenement apartment.
“I slept between my grandparents,” says Pacino, recalling the poverty. “I never had playmates in our apartment and we didn’t have television.” Instead, his pretty factory worker mum smuggled him into the movies, where they found a bit of glamour to lift their bleak lives.
Five-year-old Al Pacino with his father Salvatore Pacino(Image: Alamy Stock Photo)
“I learned at an early age to make friends with my imagination,” he recalls. His father barely paid any support and went off to war – not coming back into his son’s life until he’d remarried, going on to have three daughters.
Too late to save their relationship. Pacino says, simply: “He was absent.” But a chance conversation with his father’s relatives revealed a family secret about his mother’s fragile mental health which left him reeling. “When I was a young actor, the Pacinos came backstage to see me,” he recalls.
“It came out that I had been taken away from my mother for eight months while my father was at war and sent to live with my father’s mother.” Pacino called his grandmother Josephine “a gift from God” and one the “first of the lifesavers” for saving him from the care system and keeping him out of the gutters.
His mother’s father, James, a plasterer, had come, possibly illegally, to New York from a Sicilian town, Corleone. “He was the first real father figure I had,” says Pacino.
His granny, Kate, was a great storyteller, and he would sit with her and listen as she peeled potatoes. “I’d eat the skins raw – I loved the way they tasted.”
One day, aged six, while out playing in the street, he saw an ambulance pull up. “Coming out of the doors on a stretcher was my mother. She had attempted suicide,” he says. While his mother was in a psychiatric hospital, Pacino climbed tenement rooftops and smoked cigarettes in alleys with his street gang.
Rose Gelardi, Al Pacino’s mum battled with mental health(Image: Alamy Stock Photo)
“Every day was an adventure with Cliffy, Bruce and Petey,” he says. But the love he received at home saved him from a downward spiral.
“I think that made the difference. I made it out alive, they didn’t,” he reflects. As a 10-year-old toughie, Pacino says he was like “a cat with many more than nine lives” the way he cheated death – from falling through ice in the freezing Bronx river to impaling his groin on a fence.
“I remember my mother, aunt and grandmother poking my penis in a panic,” he says. “But it remained attached, along with the trauma.” Recalling the wild freedom of opening hydrants on hot summer days and fishing for lost dimes in street grates, he says: “If we wanted food, we’d steal it. We never paid for anything.”
Athletic Pacino got into sport. “It was like I lived two lives – my life with the gang, and the guys I played baseball with,” he writes. Meanwhile, his mother got engaged again, but was crushed after being dumped.
“Doctors said she had anxiety neurosis, and she needed costly electroshock treatment and barbiturates,” the actor shares. At New York’s High School of Performing Arts, Pacino’s talent was being noticed. “A guy came up to me after a show and said, “Hey kid, you’re going to be the next Marlon Brando.”
Al’s talent was getting noticed at New York’s High School of Performing Arts(Image: Warner Brothers)
He had to leave at 16 and took odd jobs as an errand boy, removals and even bus boy. “They caught me eating leftovers off the tables – that’s how hungry I was,” he admits. Seeing acting as an escape route from poverty, he enrolled in acting classes, where he met fellow student Martin Sheen.
Dreaming of being a stage actor, Pacino would recite Shakespeare aloud in vacant lots. “Marty moved in with me so we could split the rent,” he says, adding they both worked cleaning toilets.
Aged 22, Pacino was performing in off-Broadway productions to mixed reviews. Then the news came that his mother was sick and he rushed to see her. “I was too late. She had died choking on her own pills.”
Within a year, he also lost his beloved grandfather and used alcohol and pills to dull the pain. “It was my lowest point,” he admits. “But drinking saved my life. I was able to self-medicate.”
At 26, he learned his famous method acting skills from Lee Strasberg’s Actors’ Studio in New York, before going to Boston to do rep theatre and appeared in his screen debut in TV cop drama N.Y.P.D. with first love Jill Clayburgh. “My relationship with the director who would change my life began oddly,” he writes. “Frances Ford Coppola offered me a part in a film that never got made.
“Months later, I got a call from Francis who was going to be directing The Godfather. He offered me the role of Michael Corleone. This was a hundred-to-million-to-one-shot.”
Al Pacino as Don Michael Corleone(Image: CBS via Getty Images)
Coppola got his way and Pacino met the love of his life, Diane Keaton, on the set of The Godfather. “We just hit it off,” he says. “She was easy to talk to and funny.”
He would also go on to have love affairs with Tuesday Weld while working on his next film Serpico, and Kathleen Quinlan during Scarface in the 1980s. When Pacino finally met Marlon Brando – the man he’d been compared to years earlier – he was mesmerised.
“When I had lunch with Marlon Brando he was eating chicken cacciatore with his hands. His hands were full of red sauce,” he says. The first time Pacino ever visited his home country Sicily was to shoot the wedding scene in the gangster epic.
“Francis asked me to speak to extras in the scene, dance the waltz with my bride, then drive off with her,” he says. “I told him, ‘I don’t speak Italian, I don’t know how to waltz… and I can’t drive’!”
But the time the film hit cinemas in 1972, directors were falling over themselves to have Pacino play their leading tough guys. The stratospheric rise to fame sent him hurtling for the drink and drugs again. But having seen what happened to his childhood friends, the star has been sober since 1977.
After making over 70 films, including critically acclaimed crime movies like Serpico (1973) and Scarface (1983), two Godfather sequels,Carlito’s Way (1993), Heat (1995) and Donnie Brasco (1997), still a stage actor at heart, Pacino will be back next year starring in the film adaptation of King Lear.
Legendary Hollywood icon Al Pacino shared an indepth look into his life where he opened up about his chilhood struggles and death of his close friends growing up
Al Pacino shared an indepth look into his life (Image: Getty Images)
After a career spanning 50 years, legendary Godfather actor Al Pacino will be thanking his lucky stars at turning 85 today. The kid from the wrong side of the tracks calls his entire life a “moon shot” – having survived a tough childhood in the Bronx, where three of his closest gang friends ended up “dead by 30 from heroin”.
After he began drinking at nine, he says even surviving the 1940s was a miracle – crediting his mum for his longevity, after she banned him from roaming the streets after dark with hoods. He says: “I loathed her at the time. But I’m still here because of my mother. I never thanked her for… keeping me away from the path that led to delinquency, danger and violence, to the needle that killed Petey, Cliffy and Bruce.”
READ MORE: ‘Forgotten’ Al Pacino classic film ‘teaches us all to be better people’ on BBC this weekend
Al Pacino opened up about his struggles growing up(Image: Getty Images)
Article continues below
The method actor’s awards shelf boasts an Oscar for Scent of a Woman in 1992, four Golden Globes, three Tonys and two Emmys, but his path to success from street kid to one of the greatest actors of all time is the very stuff of Hollywood epics.
The star, who has never married, shares daughter Julie Marie, 34, with acting coach Jan Tarrant, and twins Anton and Olivia, 22, with Beverly D’Angelo. Then, in 2023, Pacino shocked Hollywood by becoming a father for the fourth time to son, Roman, with ex partner Noor Alfallah, 31.
Calling parenthood a “mini miracle”, the doting father says he wrote his memoir, Sonny Boy, to share his extraordinary life story with his brood. Alfredo James Pacino was born the only child of Italian immigrants in New York’s East Harlem ghetto, on April 25, 1940.
Al and his daughter (Image: FilmMagic, Inc)
Abandoned by his dad Salvatore Pacino, when he was just two-years-old, Pacino – nicknamed Sonny Boy after an Al Jolson song – and his mum, Rose, lived in a series of cheap furnished rooms, before moving into her parents’ tiny South Bronx tenement apartment.
“I slept between my grandparents,” says Pacino, recalling the poverty. “I never had playmates in our apartment and we didn’t have television.” Instead, his pretty factory worker mum smuggled him into the movies, where they found a bit of glamour to lift their bleak lives.
Five-year-old Al Pacino with his father Salvatore Pacino(Image: Alamy Stock Photo)
“I learned at an early age to make friends with my imagination,” he recalls. His father barely paid any support and went off to war – not coming back into his son’s life until he’d remarried, going on to have three daughters.
Too late to save their relationship. Pacino says, simply: “He was absent.” But a chance conversation with his father’s relatives revealed a family secret about his mother’s fragile mental health which left him reeling. “When I was a young actor, the Pacinos came backstage to see me,” he recalls.
“It came out that I had been taken away from my mother for eight months while my father was at war and sent to live with my father’s mother.” Pacino called his grandmother Josephine “a gift from God” and one the “first of the lifesavers” for saving him from the care system and keeping him out of the gutters.
His mother’s father, James, a plasterer, had come, possibly illegally, to New York from a Sicilian town, Corleone. “He was the first real father figure I had,” says Pacino.
His granny, Kate, was a great storyteller, and he would sit with her and listen as she peeled potatoes. “I’d eat the skins raw – I loved the way they tasted.”
One day, aged six, while out playing in the street, he saw an ambulance pull up. “Coming out of the doors on a stretcher was my mother. She had attempted suicide,” he says. While his mother was in a psychiatric hospital, Pacino climbed tenement rooftops and smoked cigarettes in alleys with his street gang.
Rose Gelardi, Al Pacino’s mum battled with mental health(Image: Alamy Stock Photo)
“Every day was an adventure with Cliffy, Bruce and Petey,” he says. But the love he received at home saved him from a downward spiral.
“I think that made the difference. I made it out alive, they didn’t,” he reflects. As a 10-year-old toughie, Pacino says he was like “a cat with many more than nine lives” the way he cheated death – from falling through ice in the freezing Bronx river to impaling his groin on a fence.
“I remember my mother, aunt and grandmother poking my penis in a panic,” he says. “But it remained attached, along with the trauma.” Recalling the wild freedom of opening hydrants on hot summer days and fishing for lost dimes in street grates, he says: “If we wanted food, we’d steal it. We never paid for anything.”
Athletic Pacino got into sport. “It was like I lived two lives – my life with the gang, and the guys I played baseball with,” he writes. Meanwhile, his mother got engaged again, but was crushed after being dumped.
“Doctors said she had anxiety neurosis, and she needed costly electroshock treatment and barbiturates,” the actor shares. At New York’s High School of Performing Arts, Pacino’s talent was being noticed. “A guy came up to me after a show and said, “Hey kid, you’re going to be the next Marlon Brando.”
Al’s talent was getting noticed at New York’s High School of Performing Arts(Image: Warner Brothers)
He had to leave at 16 and took odd jobs as an errand boy, removals and even bus boy. “They caught me eating leftovers off the tables – that’s how hungry I was,” he admits. Seeing acting as an escape route from poverty, he enrolled in acting classes, where he met fellow student Martin Sheen.
Dreaming of being a stage actor, Pacino would recite Shakespeare aloud in vacant lots. “Marty moved in with me so we could split the rent,” he says, adding they both worked cleaning toilets.
Aged 22, Pacino was performing in off-Broadway productions to mixed reviews. Then the news came that his mother was sick and he rushed to see her. “I was too late. She had died choking on her own pills.”
Within a year, he also lost his beloved grandfather and used alcohol and pills to dull the pain. “It was my lowest point,” he admits. “But drinking saved my life. I was able to self-medicate.”
At 26, he learned his famous method acting skills from Lee Strasberg’s Actors’ Studio in New York, before going to Boston to do rep theatre and appeared in his screen debut in TV cop drama N.Y.P.D. with first love Jill Clayburgh. “My relationship with the director who would change my life began oddly,” he writes. “Frances Ford Coppola offered me a part in a film that never got made.
“Months later, I got a call from Francis who was going to be directing The Godfather. He offered me the role of Michael Corleone. This was a hundred-to-million-to-one-shot.”
Al Pacino as Don Michael Corleone(Image: CBS via Getty Images)
Coppola got his way and Pacino met the love of his life, Diane Keaton, on the set of The Godfather. “We just hit it off,” he says. “She was easy to talk to and funny.”
He would also go on to have love affairs with Tuesday Weld while working on his next film Serpico, and Kathleen Quinlan during Scarface in the 1980s. When Pacino finally met Marlon Brando – the man he’d been compared to years earlier – he was mesmerised.
“When I had lunch with Marlon Brando he was eating chicken cacciatore with his hands. His hands were full of red sauce,” he says. The first time Pacino ever visited his home country Sicily was to shoot the wedding scene in the gangster epic.
“Francis asked me to speak to extras in the scene, dance the waltz with my bride, then drive off with her,” he says. “I told him, ‘I don’t speak Italian, I don’t know how to waltz… and I can’t drive’!”
But the time the film hit cinemas in 1972, directors were falling over themselves to have Pacino play their leading tough guys. The stratospheric rise to fame sent him hurtling for the drink and drugs again. But having seen what happened to his childhood friends, the star has been sober since 1977.
After making over 70 films, including critically acclaimed crime movies like Serpico (1973) and Scarface (1983), two Godfather sequels,Carlito’s Way (1993), Heat (1995) and Donnie Brasco (1997), still a stage actor at heart, Pacino will be back next year starring in the film adaptation of King Lear.
Real Madrid and Barcelona will square off in the Copa del Rey (King’s Cup) final for the third time this year.
After defeating Real 5-2 in the Spanish Super Cup final in January and 4-0 in a LaLiga game in October, Barcelona will be looking to record a hat-trick of victories on Saturday against fierce foes this 2024-2025 season.
Barcelona, the Copa’s most successful club, hasn’t reached the final since 2021 when they defeated Athletic Bilbao, the most successful club in the competition. In 2023, Madrid won their 20th title against Osasuna, which they will play in their second final in three years.
The 260th competitive match between Barcelona and Real Madrid will take place on Saturday in a blockbuster showdown that will be the first time the two teams have met in a Copa final in 11 years.
Before the clash between Spain’s two football titans, find out everything you need to know:
The 2025 Copa Final will be held when?
Saturday night at 10 p.m. (20:00 GMT) will host the Copa del Rey final.
Follow Al Jazeera Sport’s live text and photo commentary stream.
Where is the location of the Copa final?
The 2025 Copa del Rey final will take place at the Estadio de La Cartuja in Seville.
One of the 11 stadiums used in the multi-country Euro 2020 tournament, the fifth-largest stadium in Spain, has a capacity of 57,600 people.
The 2024 Copa del Rey final between Athletic Bilbao and Osasuna was also held at Estadio de La Cartuja.
The 2025 Copa del Rey final will be held at the Estadio de La Cartuja in Seville.[File: Jon Nazca/Reuters] A general view of the Estadio de La Cartuja
Who will win the Copa 2025, and by what team?
Barcelona are the favorite to win the Copa del Rey in light of their recent form and dominance at the top of the table.
Borussia Dortmund defeated 3-1 in the second leg of the UEFA Champions League quarterfinals, but Hansi Flick’s side have lost just once this year across all competitions.
Barcelona has been rated as the shorter-odds favorite to win the Copa by numerous bookmakers using the Oddschecker platform, paying out an average of $2.10 for the victory over Real Madrid at $3.10.
The Catalan giant’s goal of winning the Copa del Rey, UEFA Champions League, and LaLiga treble is still unmet despite winning the Cup final.
The champion of the competition is Barcelona, Spain’s last hope in the Champions League.
With only five games left in the season, Barcelona holds a four-point lead over Real Madrid in LaLiga, Spain’s top league competition.
Only one match has Barcelona lost in 2025, under the leadership of several famous players like Lamine Yamal.
How did Barcelona and Real Madrid reach the 2025 final?
Real Madrid defeated Real Sociedad 5-4 on aggregate in the semifinals to reach the Copa final, while Barcelona defeated Atletico Madrid in the semis with the same score to secure their spot in the title match.
Who is the Copa champion in a row?
Athletic Bilbao are the current Copa champions, but Osasuna knocked them out in the round of 16. Since Barcelona won it four years straight from 2015 to 2018, Bolivia’s exit made it impossible for the club to repeat.
What transpired when Real last faced Barca in the Copa title game?
In a Copa final last year, Real Madrid and Barcelona defeated Real 2-1 thanks to goals from Gareth Bale and Angel di Maria.
On April 16, 2014, Real’s Gareth Bale, left, celebrates with Xabi Alonso after scoring his team’s second goal in the Copa del Rey final against Barcelona in Valencia.
How many Copa final encounters have Real and Barcelona had?
In the span of the competition’s history, Real Madrid and Barcelona have faced off 38 times.
In their final four games, Los Blancos are 2-0 up against Barca thanks to their slight advantage.
2014: Real Madrid 2-1 Barcelona
2011: Real Madrid 1-0 Barcelona
1990: Barcelona 2-0 Real Madrid
1983: Barcelona 2-1 Real Madrid
1974: Real Madrid 4-0 Barcelona
1968: Barcelona 1-0 Real Madrid
1936: Real Madrid 2-1 Barcelona
Who has won the most Copa del Rey titles overall?
Barcelona: 31
Athletic Bilbao: 24
Real Madrid: 20
Madrid, Atletico: 10
Valencia: eight
Lewandowski’s participation in the Copa final is uncertain.
Robert Lewandowski, the star striker for Barcelona, was diagnosed with a hamstring injury on Sunday, and he will miss the Copa del Rey final and Champions League semifinal, according to Spanish media reports.
The 36-year-old Polish forward came off during his team’s 4-3 LaLiga win over Celta Vigo on Saturday, making it Barcelona’s top goal scorer with 40 goals in all competitions.
Robert Lewandowski has a semitendinosus injury in his left thigh, according to a statement from Barcelona, who released the statement without specifying how long he would be sidelined.
Lewandowski could be out for three weeks, according to Spanish media.
Robert Lewandowski, a player for Barcelona, leaves the field on April 19, 2025, at the Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys in Barcelona with an injury.
Real Madrid team news
Carlo Ancelotti, the coach of Real Madrid, stated Kylian Mbappe is expected to start playing against Barcelona on a return from injury.
The French international missed the previous two LaLiga games due to an ankle issue that caused him to miss last week’s Champions League defeat against Arsenal.
Ferland Mendy and the forward should both be fit for the Clasico.
However, knee injuries keep Eder Militao and Dani Carvajal out of action.
news from the Barcelona team
Due to a hamstring issue, Lewandowski is the big-name absentee for Barcelona.
Due to injuries, only Alejandro Balde, Marc Casado, Marc Bernal, and Marc-Andre ter Stegen are all available for Barcelona.
lineups that might exist
Thibaut Courtois, Lucas Vazquez, Antonio Rudiger, Raul Asencio, Raul Asencio, Fran Garcia, Federico Valverde, Aurelien Tchouameni, Rodrygo, Jude Bellingham, Vinicius Jr, Kylian Mbappe, and Lucas Vazquez start for Real Madrid.
Wojciech Szczesny, Jules Kounde, Ronald Araujo, Pau Curbasi, Gerard Martin, Frenkie de Jong, Pedri, Fermin Lopez, Lamine Yamal, Raphinha, and Ferran Torres start for Barcelona.
Is the Copa del Rey the oldest Spanish competition?
Yes . The Copa del Rey is the oldest national football competition in Spain, organized by the Royal Spanish Football Federation in 1903.
The Copa del Rey champions advance to the UEFA Europa League for the following season. The winner of the Europa League is given the opportunity to advance to the next highest-placed team without qualification if the winner has already qualified for Europe through their LaLiga ladder position.
[Photo: Fran Santiago/Getty Images] The Copa del Rey trophy
King Charles and Prince Harry’s icy feud has shown no sign of thawing and as a special day family day approaches for Harry, it will highlight a ‘great loss’ for the monarch, according to royal expert Jennie Bond
Prince Harry and King Charles (Image: Getty Images)
Prince Harry’s bitter feud with his estranged father King Charles shows no sign of being resolved – and it’s having a heartbreaking knock-on effect. It means that Harry’s young children Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet have barely got to know their grandfather Charles, who is still undergoing cancer treatment.
The monarch previously told friends he is not content with only seeing his youngest grandchildren on video calls after meeting Archie only a handful of times and Lilibet once. In the coming weeks, the Sussexes will celebrate a special day when Archie turns six on May 6 – but it’s unlikely that the youngster’s royal relatives will be on hand to celebrate with him.
Harry and Meghan with their children Archie and Lilibet (Image: ARCHWELL)
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And amid the feud, royal expert Jennie Bond believes it is still a “great sadness” for the King to be a stranger to his two grandchildren – as well as it seems these days to his youngest son, Harry. The former BBC royal correspondent told the Mirror : “He always loved Harry – he called him ‘darling boy’. And I’m sure he still does love Harry and would love even more to be able to spend time with Archie and Lilibet.
“Charles is a sentimental man and a doting grandfather to George, Charlotte and Louis. And I’m sure as his struggle with cancer continues, he thinks more about the great loss of not being able to spend time with Harry’s children.”
But it’s not just Charles who looks set to miss out, Harry’s estranged brother Prince William will also be distant. Harry and his older brother are not believed to have talked in years. And Jennie added: “I always imagined Harry and William remaining close and enjoying watching their children grow up together.
“And I guess there must be times when they both think the same. But there is absolutely no sign of the cousins ever getting to know one another.
Harry is also estranged from brother Prince William (Image: In Pictures via Getty Images)
“Harry probably has more time and reason than William to think about the rift that he has caused and I’m sure it is a great sadness to him. But he has chosen a different life in a different country, and that looks as if it is where he will stay.
“However, it would be very nice if the King, and William and Catherine, marked young Archie‘s sixth birthday in some way. After all, it’s not the poor little lad’s fault that all this has happened. So I hope that, either publicly or privately, they do at least send the little boy their good wishes.”
When it comes to Harry and his dad the King, their relationship too seems to be at a low ebb with their relationship described as “distant”. Harry’s calls and letters are said to have gone unanswered and the King is said to be keeping his distance to avoid being drawn into discussions about security, with his youngest son.
The security issue has long been considered to be a sticking point towards improving family relations between the Sussexes and the rest of the Royal Family, especially the King.
And Jennie explained: “Harry must realise by now that he has put his father in an extraordinarily difficult position – suing the King’s own government. And that makes life – or indeed any conversation at all with Harry – very difficult for Charles.
“I wonder whether Harry realised at the start of this case just how hard it would make any communication with his father. Once the appeal judges have handed down their verdict, it will presumably be time for all those concerned to reassess the situation and see whether family relations can be improved. Harry certainly hasn’t made things any easier by insisting on taking this court case to the highest level.”
