Barça vs Sevilla (2nd Leg): Preview

Barça hope to make a huge comeback with help from their home crowd and the best player of all time

FC Barcelona vs Sevilla FC

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Competition/Round: 2018-19 Copa del Rey, Quarterfinals, 2nd Leg

First Leg Result: Barcelona 0-2 Sevilla

Barcelona Outs & Doubts: Ousmane Dembélé, Samuel Umtiti, Rafinha, Jeison Murillo, Sergi Samper, Denis Suarez (out)

Sevilla Outs & Doubts: Maxime Gonalons, Nolito, Joris Gnagnon, Jesús Navas, Sergio Escudero, Aleix Vidal (out)

Date/Time: Wednesday, January 30, 2019, 9.30pm CET/WAT (Barcelona & Nigeria), 8.30pm GMT (UK), 3.30pm ET, 12.30pm PT (USA), 2am IST (India, Thursday)

Venue: Camp Nou, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain

Referee: José María Sánchez Martínez

How to watch on TV: beIN SPORTS (USA & Canada), GOL, TVE La 1, TV3 (Spain), others

How to stream: beIN SPORTS CONNECT (USA & Canada), others

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Following a very good road win over Girona at the weekend to reach eight straight wins in La Liga, Barcelona turn their attentions to the Copa del Rey as they search for a semifinal spot. Thanks to a bad performance and loss to Sevilla last week, the Blaugrana now face a two-goal deficit and need a three-goal win to advance to the Last Four.

Barça didn’t have Lionel Messi and Luis Suárez played just 20 minutes in the first leg, though, so they had significantly less firepower. They also didn’t have Sergio Busquets, which is a big miss in midfield, and now all three are expected to start the second leg. Barça will also have support from the Camp Nou crowd, and from manager Ernesto Valverde to Lionel Messi, the fans have been urged to support the team from start to finish and help them make a huge comeback.

But this all comes back to Messi in the end. He’s the best player ever, and he relishes these big games. If he’s really locked in and ready to win it all by himself (or with some help from his Uruguayan buddy), Barça have a really good chance to advance. As long as they have Messi, they always have a chance.

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POSSIBLE LINEUPS

Barcelona (4-3-3): Cillessen; Roberto, Piqué, Lenglet, Alba; Rakitic, Busquets, Arthur; Messi, Suárez, Coutinho

Sevilla (3-1-4-2): Soriano; Mercado, Kjaer, Sergi Gómez; Amadou; Promes, Sarabia, Banega, Arana; André Silva, Ben Yedder

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PREDICTION

I can’t stop seeing this scenario where Messi and Suárez have one of those historic nights where they combine for something like 4 goals and 2 assists and just win the game on their won: 4-1 Barça.