Barcelona’s hopes of winning the treble this season were extinguished when they were dumped out of the Champions league by AS Roma. The Italian outfit came back from a 4-1 1st leg deficit in stunning fashion to halt the Catalan giants hopes of winning the trophy for the first time since 2015.
The fact that their domestic dominance has seen them go not only unbeaten with five games of the La Liga season left to play has lessened that disappointment slightly and although it will not cover the embarrassment of the European exit there will be at least one piece of silverware coming to the Nou Camp this season in the form of the Spanish league title.
However, Ernesto Valverde and his players will look to make it two when they take on Sevilla in the Copa Del Rey Final this weekend. Barcelona come into this games as holders after beating an Alaves side that was managed by former Southampton boss Mauricio Pellegrino in last season’s final.
Their opponents Sevilla have slid down the La Liga table over the past few weeks and find themselves 7th going into this game, not that league placings matter in a scenario such as this but at the same time if Vincenzo Montella’s men have any designs of European Football next season then this is a competition that they will need to win.
Since their own Champions league exploits ended at the hands of Bayern Munich, the form of the team from Southern Spain has been nothing to write home about and their season which had a lot of promise in danger of petering out.
For the Italian Montella, it would be the ideal end to a campaign which saw him take over the managerial reigns from Argentine Eduardo Berizzo halfway through the season. But at the same time, you could argue that he is under pressure to deliver this trophy.
Fans of the club may well look at the fact that Sevilla made the last two Champions league competitions and if anything, have now gone backwards under the stewardship of Montella, perhaps pointing that the grass is not always greener on the other side.
But the club will have a chance to rectify that issue should they get the better of Barcelona this weekend, something then nearly did when the two teams recently met at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan Stadium.
That La Liga fixture saw Sevilla take a 2-0 lead and one that looked like ending Barcelona’s unbeaten start to the season. With a minute to goal Luis Suarez halved the deficit for the visitors but it looked like nothing more than a scant consolation.
With that said though, it was the perfect stage for who else but Lionel Messi to step up to the plate and slot home an injury time equaliser and more importantly keep Barcelona’s invincible season hopes intact.
There cannot be a draw today with extra-time and penalties ready to be utilised should a winner not be able to found in either 90 or 120 minutes and although anything can happen in a one off game such as this. Forebet predicts Barcelona to win back to back Copa Del Rey’s.