The 2nd leg of the Copa Del Rey Quarter Finals are here and Barcelona will seek to erase a 0-2 deficit as they host Sevilla who will be eager to knock off the Spanish giants!
In the 1st leg we saw Valverde use a 2nd string squad and he completely left Messi out which did not pay off for Barcelona as they were beaten 2-0 by Sevilla who completely outplayed them and now Barca have their work cut out for them.
Overall, Barcelona have shown very strong form in recent weeks, they’re actually on a 8 game win streak in La Liga, however in Copa they had their ups and downs having lost 2 of 5 games winning the other 3 which got them into this round.
So far in Copa Del Rey, Barcelona defeated lower league side Leonard 5-1 on aggregate (4-1 1-0) Levante 4-2 on aggregate (1-2, 3-0) and lost the 1st leg to Sevilla 2-0.
Barcelona are currently 4 time defending Copa Del Rey champions, but with the team selections that we’ve seen by Valverde, they may not be going all out for the competition this season with the league and UCL being the main priority.
Assuming he plays this time like he did against Levante only playing the 2nd leg, Lionel Messi is clearly the man to watch as usual for Barca as he’s been in red hot having scored 9 goals in his last 7 apps having scored at least once in all of them. Lionel has torched Sevilla throughout his career netting 26 times in 35 apps vs them.
Barcelona have been extremely dominant at Nou Camp, in fact if you look at the La Liga stats, they’ve scored 17 more goals (36) than the 2nd highest scoring home La Liga (19) so don’t rule out a possible comeback.
Sevilla themselves have been up and down, they lost 3 straight games not so long ago, but have responded with back to back wins against Barcelona and they’ve smashed Levante 5-0 most recently which does show that they’ve hit some form entering this game.
Sevilla’s biggest problem this season has been away form. They’ve only managed to win 2 of their last 12 away games across all competitions losing 5 and drawing 5. At Home, they’ve been unplayable but away they’ve been awful and that’s the biggest worry entering this game.
Wissam Ben Yedder is the man to watch from the Sevilla’s team. He’s been in great form having scored 7 goals in his last 10 apps including scoring in the reverse fixture against Barcelona.
Sevilla’s road to the Quarters in this competition have came after they beat lower league side Villanovense in what was actually a very tough tie as Sevilla overcame them 1-0 over two legs (0-0 1-0). Then Sevilla eliminated Bilbao 3-2 on aggregate beating them 1-3 away from home but losing 0-1 at Home ironically.
Barcelona have faced Sevilla at Nou Camp in the league this season and Barca won 4-2. That would actually be a good result for Sevilla as it would send them through on away goals.
Barcelona have dominated Sevilla at Nou Camp in recent years beating them consecutively 9 times at Home.
Bookies have Barcelona as MASSIVE favourites to win in 90 mins at 1.24 with Draw being priced at 6.00 and Sevilla to win at an extrodionary 11.00. However, Sevilla are still favoured to go through to the Semi Final at 1.58 while Barca are tipped at 2.35.
Team News
Barcelona: Ousmane Dembele and Samuel Umtiti are the only absentees for Barca. We saw Messi, Suarez, Alba and Busquets get left out in the 1st leg but anticipate them to return in hopes of keeping Barcelona alive in the cup.
Sevilla: Nolito, Jesus Navas and El Haddadi are absent for Sevilla.
Betting Stats
*All of these stats will be based off La Liga since both teams play in that league to keep this as accurate as possible.
Barcelona are 5th best at covering total goal overs at home at 45.5% (5-1-5).
Barcelona are 3rd best at covering 1st half total goal overs at home at 54.55 (6-5).
Messi (11) and Suarez (9) have a combined 20 total goals at Nou Camp for Barcelona in La Liga this season.
Barcelona average 2.09 bookings per game at Nou Camp (23 bookings in 11 games).
Barcelona are 6th best at covering Handicaps at home this season at 54.5% (6-5).
Sevilla are just 12th best at covering total goal overs away from home at 36.4% (4-7).
Sevilla are 14th best at covering total 1st half goal overs away from home at 27.3% (3-3-5).
Wissam Ben Yedder and Andre Silva are Sevilla’s tied top scorers away from home with 5 away goals each.
Sevilla average 3 bookings away from home with 33 bookings in 11 away games.
Sevilla just 18th best (3rd worst) at covering Handicaps away from home at 36.4% (4-1-6)
KICK OFF – 30th January 2019 – 8:30pm UK Time
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