Copa del Rey team against Betis youngest in seven years

For the Betis game after the Spanish Super Cup win in Yeddah, Hansi Flick picked a side featuring five changes from the El Clásico line-up. The Barça team that ran out onto the pitch included Iñaki Peña, Kounde, Cubarsí, Araujo, Gerard Martín, Frenkie de Jong, Gavi, Pedri, Dani Olmo, Lamine Yamal and Raphinha, in turn becoming this season's youngest eleven, with an average age of just 23 years and 277 days old.

That figure was mainly due to three of Barça's older players from the Spanish Super Cup final being left out for different reasons – Szczesny due to suspension (after being sent off), Iñigo Martinez due to injury, and this season's top scorer Lewandowski being rotated.

Younger than the team for the trip to Pamplona

The previous youngest side picked by Hansi Flick this season was for the away match to Osasuna on 28 September 2024 – a heavily rotated side – with young players like Lamine Yamal only appearing off the bench. That day saw Barça lose 4-2 with a team with an average age of 23 years and 292 days old.

The youngest eleven... in seven years!

Flick's eleven that faced Betis has also broken other records, as they have become the youngest Barça team since 2018. It's been over six years now that Barça picked a team with such a young average age. It was also a Copa del Rey match, on 31 October 2018 away to Cultural Leonesa, and the blaugrana eleven had an average age of 23 years and 173 days old.

The line-up that day was Cillessen, Semedo, Chumi, Jorge Cuenca, Miranda, Sergi Samper, Arturo Vidal, Denis Suárez, Malcom, Dembélé, and Munir.

Another record against Betis

Curiously, this isn't the first youthful record for Barça when facing Betis. It's almost a year since Xavi Hernández's Barça took to the pitch at the Benito Villamarín stadium for a LaLiga match on 21 January 2024 featuring two players aged under 17 years old in the starting eleven for the first time in the Club's history (with the exception of the matchday two fixture in the 1984/85 season when a strike meant teams had to field youth players). That side in Seville was also the youngest that season up to that point, with an average age of 24 years and 170 days old.