Barcelona vs Sevilla Betting Tips & Predictions

Barcelona return to the scene of the lowest point in their season when they were beaten 2-0 at the Vicente Calderon in the Champions League a month ago. They do so in much better shape though having won their final five games in the league to clinch the Primera Division title. They scored 24 goals in those games without conceding with Luis Suarez in stunning form either scoring or assisting the majority of those goals.

Those games were all against bottom half sides though and they are likely to find this much more competitive against a Sevilla side that beat Liverpool on Wednesday to win the Europa League for the third season in a row. It was a remarkable achievement particularly when contrasted to their league form where they’ve failed to win a match outside Seville all season but a strong home record ensured they’d still secure a 7th place finish.

Sevilla are a side that really thrives in the cup competitions and victory here would give them a 10th piece of cup silverware in the space of 10 years which would be a sensational record for a club that had only previously won 4 trophies in their entire history. They won the Copa del Rey in 2007 and 2010 and with confidence sky high following their Europa League success will believe they can cause an upset.

The Catalans though are unbeaten in 17 matches in the Copa del Rey since a 2-1 defeat to Real Madrid in the 2014 final. A wonder goal from Leo Messi sealed a 3-1 win over Athletic in last year’s final and they’ve made easy work of this year’s competition too cruising past Espanyol, Athletic Bilbao and Valencia on route to the final.

This game has all the makings of an entertaining affair and meetings between these two normally present plenty of goals. They’ve met three times already this season with both teams scoring in all the matches and 15 goals in total including 9 in Barca’s thrilling 5-4 European Super Cup win back in August. The league games resulted in both teams winning their home games 2-1 and Sevilla had plenty of chances at Camp Nou when they visited in the Spring.

Both teams have scored in all of the last 9 meetings between Barcelona and Sevilla and it’s highly likely that will be the case again here. However Barcelona clearly have the greater all round quality and should be the fresher of the two sides having only played on weekends over the last month while Sevilla have had to deal with a congested fixture list including of course Wednesday’s final with Liverpool.

To win two finals against top opposition in 4 days would be a massive ask for Unai Emery’s side and with Barcelona determined to seal a domestic double, the Catalans should ultimately win the game and backing Barcelona to win and both teams to score at 11/8 looks to offer great value.