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Mission impossible for visitors from Cuenca

Barcelona are stronger than ever and have no real competition in the national championship

The reigning champions have already won this season's title without even stepping onto the court, according to many pundits. With the dissolution of Atletico and the signings of Karabatic and Lazarov, Barcelona are lonely at the top, miles ahead of any other team in the domestic competition. Therefore, the first match of the season will serve as the presentation of new players, most notably the super signings Karabatic and Lazarov, while the third one, Saubich, came rather unexpectedly at the end of the preseason after Rocas left the club for Danish Kolding.

Some other last season's players have left the team as well, such as Montoro who was loaned to Toulouse, Jernemyr and Aguirrezabalaga. The squad is even stronger this season and once again the aim is to win every competition they take part in. Two trophy's are already at the club - Spanish Super Cup and Super Globe (world club championship), and today's game marks the start of the hunt for the remaining titles.

Coach Pascual remains cautious, in spite of his team's total domination, emphasizing that they are not at their best game yet due to an atypical preseason and that it will take a while for things to fall into place. He has all the players at his disposal, so the only question is who will he rest and which of the youth players will be sent in, as this has been his regular practice in recent seasons.

The season's start sends Ciudad Encantada to Barcelona, a trip from which they can bring only nice memories and photos, as counting on points would be borderline science fiction. Coach Zup's idea is to play the best they can and enjoy the fact they are playing against one of the biggest teams in the world, knowing that anything else would be a delusion.

- The schedule is as it is, and maybe it's the best option for us because Barcelona is in a league of its own. After Saturday, we will focus on our actual league - Zup commented.

The away team will be without Sorrentino for this match, as he got injured in the last preseason game against Guadalajara. Several players are set to make their official debuts today, including Marko Djokic, their latest signing as of last Saturday. In spite of a long trip, the team have departed on the day of the match to save some euros, as everyone is clear there can be no talk of a positive outcome.

Barcelona already showed in the opening of the season how much offensive potential they have. They scored 40 points against a much stronger Naturhouse on a neutral field in the Supercup and won with nine points difference and they also shined on Super Globe in Qatar. The mighty team got another two top-class players Karabatic and Lazarov and I think that Barcelona will be even more aggressive this season. They are visited by the weak Ciudad Encantada which suffered two big loses in the past two seasons here (39-22 and 38-24). The difference in quality is even greater now and it is not probable they will pass. Except for the mentioned visiting losses Encantada lost against Barcelona in their home field with 9 and 10 points difference. If we count out the match against Atletico, Barcelona covered this margin on their home front last year in 10 out of 14 matches without Karabatic and Lazarov in the lineup.