Barcelona boss Ernesto
Valverde rotated the Barcelona line-up for the first-leg of the Copa del Rey
quarter-finals. He left out Lionel Luis Suarez, Sergio Busquets, Jordi Alba,
and Philippe Countinho in the starting XI. New loan-signing Kevin-Prince Boateng
made his debut but was replaced by Luis Suarez in the second half. Boateng
played with personality and intensity, in an athletic way but tailed off little
by little and was replaced on the hour.
In the first half, Barcelona had a
brilliant opportunity to score an away goal but Malcom's strike could only find
the side-netting.
Sevilla's
Pablo Sarabia and Wissam Ben Yedder gave Sevilla a 2-0 win at home with their
second-half goals. Valverde brought on Coutinho and Luis Suarez in a double
change after Sevilla went up 1-0. They both made some effort but were unable to
concretize their efforts into a goal. Coutinho hasn't been in good form lately
and actually lost the ball in the build up to Sevilla's second goal. There were
barely any gaps in the Sevilla defence offering Barcelona little to no scoring
opportunities.
Barcelona
will need Messi in the second-leg of the quarter-finals if they are to advance
to the semi-finals. The past for Spanish Cups have been won by Barcelona. The
have enjoyed an extensive Copa del Rey success, lastly failing to reach the
finals only in 2012-2013.
Sevilla: Soriano; Mercado, Kjaer, Gómez; Navas (Silva), Sarabia (Vazquez),
Amadou, Banega, Escudero; Promes, Ben Yedder
Goals: Sarabia (58‘), Ben Yedder (76’)
Barcelona: Cillessen; Roberto, Piqué, Lenglet; Semedo (Alba), Aleñá, Roberto,
Arthur, Malcom (Coutinho); Vidal, Prince (Suarez).
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