Real Madrid will not spend night in Barcelona

Real Madrid will not be spending the night in Barcelona. The journey plan is to leave on Tuesday morning for the club's hotel in Barcelona, and spend the fewest possible hours there before the match, which kicks off at 9 p.m.

This is not the first time that Real Madrid has travelled to an away fixture on the same day as the game itself - a practice that is quite usual for Barcelona - and avoided spending a night at a hotel. Mourinho has seen that his players do not require any kind of extra motivation prior to taking on this second-leg cup game. He has therefore elected to do Monday morning's training at Valdebebas, allowing the players to spend Monday night at home.

One of the reasons behind all this is to avoid the hostile atmosphere which has been evident on the last few occasions when the Real Madrid squad has spent the night in Barcelona. There have been disturbances, where people have congregated close to the hotel in the middle of the night, shouting and interrupting the players' sleep.

Real Madrid has done well on its recent visits to the Camp Nou, when it returned on the same day as the match. As such, the club sees no reason to change anything just because a place in the cup final is at stake. It is Mourinho's job to make sure the players do not get anxious about anything, as this might damage their chances, Marca reports.