Monday, January 14, 2008

Copa Del Rey Preview: Barcelona - Sevilla What: Copa del Rey Last 16, Second Leg Who: Barcelona (1) v (1) Sevilla When: 21:00 CET - Tuesday, Januar

The scoreline is level after the first game and now the playing field has been levelled even further as both sides will be without their African Cup of Nations stars.

Sevilla were unable to field Frédéric Kanouté, Arouna Koné or Seydou Keita in the opening leg last week, but Cameroon gave special permission for Samuel Eto'o to stay at Barça a week longer.

Now the Blaugrana have seen their free-scoring striker jet off to join up with his international teammates and he will be unavailable on Tuesday evening.

Touré Yaya did not play in the opening fixture as he had already teamed up with the Ivory Coast squad, but Sevilla were slightly unhappy that Eto'o had been allowed to stay.

Despite that, the Andalucian outfit put in a strong performance and can consider themselves to be slightly unfortunate to be heading to Camp Nou level pegging.

Back In The Groove

There was little that they could do to stop Thierry Henry scoring six days ago, however, as the Frenchman showed that he could finally be showing his best form again.

At the weekend the former Arsenal player built on his effort in midweek by setting up two of Barça's four goals in the hefty win over Real Murcia.

It was not such good news for Manolo Jiménez's side as they were beaten by the up-and-under tactics of Athletic Bilbao in San Mames.

That result will not have dented confidence at Sevilla too badly and their coach has already begun to discuss how he is going to approach the trip to the Catalan capital.

After seeing another display of sublime attacking football by Barça on Saturday, Jiménez is preparing to shore up his defence and snatch a goal on the break.

Great Expectations

Sevilla go into the game knowing that they have to score at least once to have any chance of going through to the quarter finals of the competition that they won last season.

Barcelona's home record will not make for enjoyable reading for Jiménez as Frank Rijkaard side have let in just five goals in the league this term and netted 26.

Their only defeat came at the hands of arch rivals Real Madrid just before Christmas and they will be out to ensure that another does not follow so soon after.

Sevilla are still trying to make up ground in la Primera after a shaky start to the campaign and it has been on the road that they have really struggled.

With just one win away from home and six defeat from nine games, they will have to turn things around very quickly if they are to knock the Blaugrana out.

RECENT FORM

Barcelona


Sevilla


TEAM NEWS

Barcelona

Deco is set to return to the squad after overcoming the leg injury that has kept him out of action for the past few games. Gaby Milito, Éric Abidal and Andrés Iniesta are all expected to return to the starting line-up after missing out against Real Murcia. Along with Eto'o and Touré, Ronaldinho will not play as he has yet to be given the green light to return to playing.

Squad: TBA

Sevilla

As well as being without their trio of African players, Sevilla may go into the game without their top scorer Luis Fabiano, who has a cold. Julian Escudé is suspende after being sent off at the weekend and he is set to be replaced by young Lolo, who has been promoted from the B team, Sevilla Atlético. Daniel Alves has a knock but is expected to play, while Enzo Maresca, Federico Fazio and Tom de Mul are all rested.

Squad: Vargas, De Sanctis, Lolo, Drago, Daniel, Mosquera, Adriano, Duda, Renato, Martí, Poulsen, Capel, Jesús Navas, Chevantón, Kerzhakov, Alfaro, Luis Fabiano.

PREDICTION

The two teams' respecitve performances at the weekend were a good indicator of their form this season as Sevilla struggled away from home while Barcelona were dominant on their own patch. While this will be tougher then the game on Saturday, the Blaugrana should still progress.

Barcelona 3 - 1 Sevilla

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