Pre-Match Preview: Sevilla – Barcelona

It all comes down to this. Sevilla – Barcelona, a match that will possibly decide the league title; not that I’m writing off Valladolid, but if we overcome Sevilla do you honestly think that we’re going to allow Valladolid to push us around? They might. Always fear a relegating team! With 2 games remaining things couldn’t be tighter than this! This is the first time in the history of La liga that one team has made it beyond the 92 point mark. Well in our case, 2 teams have made it beyond the 92 point mark and STILL, La Liga hasn’t been decided. I knew this season was going to be tough, but I didn’t expect it to be that tough. Sevilla have secured the last door to the 2010/2011 Champions League and it is theirs to lose. After Real Madrid’s win over Mallorca yesterday, and Sevilla’s crushing of Racing, they now occupy the 4th place. Mallorca’s next game is against Deportivo and; therefore, Sevilla cannot afford to lose any more points if they want to hold on to the 4th place. Barcelona, on the other hand, are holding their own fate in their hands. We are in pole position and if we don’t end up winning La Liga, it is not Real Madrid’s fault nor Sevilla’s fault, it is our fault.

Preview:

We have only lost 4 times this season, twice in the Champions League, once in the Copa and once in the league. Sevilla is one of the teams that can say that they beat us this season. I don’t want to get into why they beat us (Chygrinsky) back then. As Inter have demonstrated, playing a team at two completely different times does not always mean the first result will be repeated. We had to find that out the hard way unfortunately. I trust that Pep will approach this game with the utmost seriousness we’ve seen from him all season. We cannot afford to lose this game, we’ve come too far to lose it all now. Sevilla’s results have been mixed since the arrival of Antonio Alvarez. They have won 5 times and lost 3 times in the last 8 matches in La Liga since Jimenez stepped down from the hot seat. Statistics help to give a clearer view on paper as we approach the match, but once that whistle is blown, none of it matters anymore. It’s all on the pitch. Sevilla’s home form has been relatively good. They have the 6th best overall home record in La Liga, with 10W-6D-2L, 31GF 15GA. From here they’re already looking like a tough nut to crack. Fortunately for us, if we were to look at statistics alone, we find that we have the best away record in the league, with 12W-5D-1L, 38GF 11GA.

14 matches since our last defeat in the league and we are flying high. Confidence is high and we don’t like like we are going to drop points. Messi is the league’s top scorer, Valdes is the leagues top goalkeeper and everything seems to be uphill from here, right? Wrong! None of that matters if we cannot seal the deal against an opponent who’s season may not be defined as a success if they don’t make it to next season’s Champions League, even if it is at our expense. Sevilla have the same hatred we do to Madrid based teams, but they aren’t the type who will throw a game just to see Madrid not win the league. It doesn’t work that way. Last game’s victory might have seemed like an easy one, but it wasn’t at all. We were made to fight for that second goal on our own ground, so you can just imagine what Sevilla are going to do. A draw will not cut it for them and neither will it for us. Both teams are entering this game with one goal in mind, score more goals than the opposition. 10 – 9? 100-99? It doesn’t matter, we need these three points. Alves wants to win the League on his former employers’ ground, but we cannot have one eye on the Madrid match (which, by the way, will be played at the exact same time as ours) wishing and praying that they would slip up so that we can win the league. We must go out and show the world that we depend on nobody but ourselves.

The war or words started a week ago between Sergio Ramos and Iniesta, with the latter indicating that he was watching a movie at the time of the Real Madrid – Osasuna match which was just as bad. Ramos indirectly told him that if he doesn’t like the way they play, he can just turn off the TV. Marcelo, on the other hand, must be trying a new scheme. Last season, he was predicting how Barcelona would lose to Sevilla, and then to Real Madrid which meant that they would win the league. We all saw what happened to them last season, so he might be trying a different approach, which is “I don’t think they’ll fail” LOL! History shows that Sevilla (in the league) haven’t beaten us since 2007. If we enter this game with our heads straight, I think that this run will continue. Unfortunately, we have had some unorthodox starts to a few games where we nearly conceded, and we cannot afford to have another one of those. Sevilla has never beaten the Guardiola era (once again in the League) and have conceded a lot of goals to us, 11 to be exact with no answer in return in all 3 games.

Iniesta hasn’t been given the green light yet but things are looking good. Abidal is still out, but Guardiola has hinted that our greyhound might be able to play if he deems him fit. He wasn’t on the bench against Villareal or Tenerife. Other than that, we’re all good. Pique’s injury seems to be more serious than was first thought (according to the media) but there has been no official statement on the official website. If Pique is not fit, then we can expect Milito or Marquez to step into his shoes. Unfortunately for Sevilla, their injury problems are much worse than ours Luis Fabiano (he might be on the bench if he passes a late fitness test), Lautaro Acosta and Aldo Duscher are a few of the names missing; however, their main problem is in defense with the likes of Sebastien Squillaci, Dragutinovic, Cala and Segio Sanchez all out. Could that prove vital in the race for La Liga? We shall find out on Saturday..

Predicted Lineup: Vales, Alves, Puyol, Milito, Maxwell, Busquets, Xavi, Toure, Messi, Pedro, Bojan.

Expect Sevilla to go all out on attack because a point will not suffice for them. The key to this game, for us, is possession. If we keep the ball, our opponents cannot score. Our defense has to be up for the task because the likes of Capel, Negredo, Navas and Kanoute can hurt us on the counter if we are not careful. If we emerge from this game with maximum points, we can say that the hardest task was completed and deem ourselves (virtually) champions. If Madrid slip up against Bilbao, then those three points will be enough to officially seal the title. Personally, I would like to win it at the Camp Nou as a thank you for all the fans’ support. But for now, let’s take things as they come, first up.. Sevilla!

Prediction: Sevilla 1 – 3 Barcelona.

Visca el Barca!