Barcelona vs Sevilla /// Competition: Spanish Primera Division
Date: 5 April 2017
Kick-off Time: 17:30 GMT
Venue: Camp Nou, Barcelona
The defeat in La Coruna, which interrupted a series
of 05 wins and spoiled the celebration for great victories in the UCL against PSG, which have helped them qualify for the 1/4 of that competition, FC Barcelona has again made two
victories in the championship and they are following the leader. Both
victories were quite expected, since they welcomed Valencia team, which is good, but this season they are not playing well and they did not
succeed as in the previous season to make problems for the Catalonians.
Things did not work smoothly for Barcelona team in the first half when the
score became 2-2, but they were dominant in the second even though they
had one player less and they celebrated with 4-2.
The game was not easy
for them in Granada on Sunday, where they were also valid for the big
favourites. At the beginning of the second part it was 1-1, but by the
end they still scored another 03 goals and convincingly celebrated.
It is noticeable that Barcelona lately received at least one goal in all the
games and in the last ten matches they only managed to keep their
network intact twice. They played without Lionel Messi in Granada, who got
suspended due to yellow cards, and center-back Pique was also absent.
Iniesta started on the bench and it was one combined setup, but it will
now be a lot stronger with the 03 aforementioned players from the
first minute on the field.
FC Sevilla team, on the other hand, fell into a crisis in an awkward moment, from which they
never came out. They paid it already with the elimination from the
Champions League competition, which is certainly a great disappointment, but they
are also paying dearly in the championship, where they completely melted
advantage they had in relation to Atletico Madrid. They fell to fourth place,
which means that they no longer have direct placement in the Champions
League competition. Two rounds, they lost in Madrid 3-1 against Atletico Madrid, but it is
not the biggest problem. Before this match, as well as in the last
round, they only played a draw against much weaker rivals and valuable
points were lost.
To make matters worse, Sevilla played two draws at
home and against teams that are fighting for survival. The first was 1-1
against Leganes and in the last round 0-0 against Sporting. They are
failing to record any victories at home and they are already more than a
month without a win. They have missed a lot of chances on Sunday
against Sporting team, and it did not help that the recovered striker Jovetic
played the last half hour. Center-back player, Rami, was absent and the left
back Escudero too. Now Escudero and Jovetic could be among starters.
Probable lineups:
Barcelona: ter Stegen – S.Roberto, Pique, Mascherano, Jordi Alba – Busquets, Iniesta, Rakitić – Messi, L.Suarez, Neymar.
Sevilla: S.Rico – Montoya, Pareja, Lenglet, Escudero – Iborra, N'Zonzi – Nasri, Vazquez, Vitolo – Jovetic
