A double game is always more difficult, but this Sevilla is no longer afraid of anyone. Julen Lopetegui’s team faces the first ’round’ against Barça at the best moment of the season. Firm in defense and decisive in attack, the Nervionenses will throw the rest in a competition whose title they have three games ahead and in which they are doing historical numbers.
After five qualifying rounds played -Ciudad de Lucena (0-3), Linares Deportivo (0-2), Leganés (0-1), Valencia (3-0) and Almería (0-1) -, Sevilla FC still do not concede no goal. Something that will be difficult to repeat against a Barça that also arrives on a roll and with its best man, Messi, unleashed. The Argentine has the best numbers of his career against the Seville team and comes after having led the comeback at Benito Villamarín.
To this must be added the physical problems that Sevilla accumulated in recent weeks due to the accumulation of matches and the great effort that their men are making. At least two of the players who were injured for a long time, such as Czech goalkeeper Tomas Vaclík and left-back Sergio Escudero, are already in the group dynamics, but other fundamental pieces in Julen Lopetegui’s scheme will not be against Barcelona .
Perhaps the most important casualties are that of the captain of the squad, Jesús Navas, who has suffered a physical loss for several weeks, and that of Argentine Marcos Acuña, who also missed the last games due to a muscle injury that will have him out of the team a lot of time.
These have been joined by Argentine winger Lucas Ocampos, who last Saturday suffered a sprained left ankle due to Djené’s hard tackle and who will also take several weeks to return to the team.
The list of casualties due to injury is completed by midfielder Óscar Rodríguez, also convalescing from muscle damage for which he has lost being in the last calls of Lopetegui.
Yes, it will be available for the game the Croatian ex-Azulgrana half Ivan Rakitic, who on Saturday had to serve a penalty game for accumulating cautions and who could now start against his former teammates. Aleix Vidal will also face his exes, who is having a good season and makes the loss of Jesús Navas less worrying.
The absence of Ocampos at one of the ends of the attack could have several variants, such as the presence of the last reinforcement of the team, the Argentine Alejandro ‘Papu’ Gómez, or the commitment to the left of another ex-barcelonista, Munir El Haddadi.
At the top, if we stick to the usual rotations, De Jong should start from the beginning, although being a semifinal and such an important match, perhaps Lopetegui will bet on the Moroccan Youssef En-Nesyri, who already has thirteen goals in LaLiga and who in total he has been seventeen in this campaign.
His rival, Barça, does not have enough troops either. Weighed down by casualties, especially in defense, Koeman’s team will put its solvency to the test on stage and against a more than demanding rival.
In his favor, he also attends the cup meeting in full triumph. In LaLiga, the culés have not yet yielded a single point so far in 2021. They have accumulated six consecutive victories. And, in addition, tracing scores against, such as Villamarín.
The Catalan team is specializing in this art also in the Cup. Last week, in the quarterfinals of the tournament, the Catalans neutralized an adverse 2-0 against Granada in the last minutes of the match. Arrived at the extension, the culés imposed their law to endorse a 3-5. This is how they reached the semifinals of the competition, the only round that retains the old double-round system.
The Catalan team travels to Seville with eight casualties. And, after spraining his left ankle against Betis, the Uruguayan center-back Ronald Araujo was not the last to join the infirmary. This Tuesday three other casualties have been known: that of full-back Sergiño Dest, midfielder Miralen Pjanic and forward Martin Braithwaite. All of them drag muscle problems and will not be in Seville.
Neither will the defenders Gerard Piqué and Sergi Roberto or the attackers Ansu Fati and Philippe Coutinho. And Koeman will have to restructure again the defensive line that has caused so many headaches this course.
With Jordi Alba’s only fixed place in the left lane, it is most likely that academy player Óscar Mingueza will once again occupy Dest’s place on the right side and that Frenchmen Samuel Umtiti and Clement Lenglet will form the central pair.
In the core, Sergio Busquets will occupy the defensive pivot in a 4-3-3 game system. Ahead, he will have Frenkie de Jong and Pedri González, who will return fresher to the eleven after resting from the beginning in the last league game against Betis.
There will be no surprises in attack either, where the hat-trick formed by Ousmane Dembélé, Antoine Grizemann and Leo Messi, who also rested the first hour at Villamarín, has already settled.
– Datasheet:
Seville: Bonus; Aleix Vidal, Koundé, Diego Carlos, Escudero; Fernando, Jordan; Suso, Rakitic, Papu Gómez; and De Jong
Barcelona: Ter Stegen; Mingueza, Umtiti, Lenglet, Jordi Alba; Busquets, De Jong, Pedri; Dembélé, Griezmann y Messi
Referee: Antonio Miguel Mateu Lahoz (Valencian Committee)
Stadium: Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán
