Dropping the two extra points at Levante has Sevilla FC in a bit of a pickle heading into the match with Barcelona. Atlético Madrid won their match against Osasuna in commanding fashion 0-5 and sit 2 points behind Sevilla for third place heading in to matchday 30. The match today against Barcelona has gained some importance to try for at least a draw to help maintain pace as Atlético have a fairly mundane match against Valladolid tomorrow.
Barcelona comes into the Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán having won their last three matches and find themselves in a tight battle for the league title. Real Madrid is only 2 points behind the league leaders and hold the tie breaker. Barcelona come in to the match a little banged up as they will be without Frenkie De Jong and Sergi Roberto. Umtiti will also miss the match due to suspension for yellow card accumulation.
Sevilla will be at full strength, minus Nolito who found himself with a rare non-transfer window move to Celta Vigo. This will be Sevilla’s third match in eight days so I imagine there will be some tired legs if Lopetegui decides to rely on some of the heavily used players such as Ocampos, De Jong, Diego Carlos, Kounde and Jesus Navas.
Getting very nevous now. Let’s break the stats. I really hope Lopi has got them fired up for this.
Messi has scored 37 goals in 38 games against us
The ref is Gonzalez Gonzalez, he’s refereed 34 of our games. Eight victories by Sevilla , seven draws and 19 defeats.
I believe in the team, however in the man in charge I do not so much. Still think we haven´t had a positive result against the big teams. Although I really want not to, I feel like today won´t be any different. Prove me wrong please, but I struggle getting my hopes up with our weak attacking showings.
We need some bright sparks from our stars to have a chance in the attack, good coordinated defence starting with Vaclik being sober or Barca will punish it. Step up some of our loose play, act like every pass matters and put full focus in that, I don´t wanna see unconcentrated, loose passes thinking it will be fine, no, these matches everything matters. Don´t throw the chances you are gonna get, because we will get some. So please no repetition of those things like in the first barça game por fa.
I hate when it comes to playing Barcelona. With Real Madrid I always feel like we have half a chance, but there is just something about that horrible club FCB that I feel like even when we play well we often get stitched up by a dodgy play or a shit refereeing decision.
Funny how certain referees have certain records against certain clubs. Crystal Palace, never EVER won a game with Mark Clattenburg as referee. The bloke is dodgy as fuck, and he had a video online not too long ago where he basically mocked it too. Absolute tool!
Playing Barça feels like 3 games in 1. We had a good start in the 1st game, and the chances we missed cost us. Then they blew us away in a matter of 20 minutes.
With Messi about to reach 700 goals it seems like the writing’s on the wall. But as long as we start well, we can find success.
I agree with you. We need to beef up our attacking options a bit in the offseason. Furthermore, you are right Lopetegui is too negative and needs to be more positive as we lack goals under his leadership. We fail to kill teams off when we go a goal up too many times.
Lopetegui has made us a compact unit and defensively better. However, we aren’t free flowing like great Sevilla teams in past and we haven’t had many games where we scored 3 goals or more. A lot of games have been tight and a struggle.
I think best we can hope for is a point tonight. Sadly I think we will lose despite a fight as I agree we don’t have enough up front.
Hope the team and manager can prove us wrong though. Vamos!
You are right. I never feel confident against Barca. They always seem to have their best team out against us and messi always plays his very best.
The refs down the years have also found ways to screw us over like you say. We had soft penalties given against us, goals ruled out, unfair dismissals, etc.
It’s also a shame we don’t have our passionate supporters roaring us on to. That is also another advantage for Barca tonight too,
I just hope the players perform and have a go. I don’t expect anything but I guess the pressure is off.
I thought the same. I’ve grown to like the pragmatic approach over the years. I wouldn’t mind if Lope went negative this game. Our best chance is to keep Barça scoreless, and not have a shootout against them.
I feel we’ll miss Banega and won’t generate much in the 1st half. We had slow starts against Betis & Levante. I just hope our counters are on point, cause Setien teams love hoarding possession.
