Sevilla FC vs FC Barcelona: It’s never easy for Barca at the Estadio Ramon Sanchez-Pizjuan
Sevilla FC vs FC Barcelona: It’s never easy for Barca at the Estadio Ramon Sanchez-Pizjuan: On Saturday night, a match between Sevilla FC and FC Barcelona will take place at the Estadio Raman Sanchez-Pizjuan. Both teams come into this matchup in very different states of mind.
Julen Lopetegui’s squad is winless after three rounds of the 2022/23 LaLiga Santander season, whereas Xavi’s squad has seven points already and just put together a dominant 4-0 performance in a win over Real Valladolid last weekend. Xavi’s squad just put together a dominant performance against Real Valladolid last weekend.
Even if this game isn’t between two teams from the same city, the old adage that previous results don’t matter before a derby still holds true. This is also the case with this particular matchup.
Barca will head to Seville for this heavyweight battle expecting to face Sevilla FC’s best punch. Although these two clubs are located on opposite sides of the nation, they usually put on a show when they compete against one another.
When they play in front of their raucous home crowd, Los Nervionenses are at their absolute best, which is a significant advantage against FC Barcelona.
The Catalan club has only won two of the seven matches between these teams that have taken place at the Estadio Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán during the course of all tournaments over the past seven years. The other five matches between these teams have ended in a tie. This includes a 1-1 draw that occurred in this matchup a year ago, which was just the sixth LaLiga Santander match that Xavi coached in his entire career.
When they played again at the Camp Nou later in the previous season, it was a close game, and it took a stunning strike from Pedri from a distance, which was chosen FC Barcelona’s goal of the season, to break the deadlock and earn the 1-0 victory on that particular occasion.
Xavi has a few choices, one of them being Jules Kounde.
FC Barcelona has come a long way since the previous year’s competitions. The Catalan institution had a busy summer, signing several star players such as Raphinha and Robert Lewandowski.
Lewandowski is currently tied for first place in the scoring charts after netting four goals in his first three games in LaLiga Santander. Other star players signed by the Catalan institution this summer include Roberto Firmino and Rafinha.
Jules Koundé, who was bought from Sevilla FC over the summer, is yet another player who made his way to FC Barcelona and has a chance to start this encounter.
The French defender played for Lopetegui for the past three seasons, during which time he demonstrated steady growth as a player. As a result of his contributions to Sevilla FC’s triumph in the Europa League in 2019/20, he has become a fan favorite at the club; nonetheless, he will be playing for the other team tonight as he contends with the infamous Nervión environment.
Sevilla FC has the ability to prevent Barca from getting the ball.
The Sevilla FC side coached by Lopetegui presents FC Barcelona with an intriguing challenge on a consistent basis because they are one of the clubs that is most equipped to prevent the Blaugrana from controlling the ball.
In each of the three seasons that the Basque tactician has been in charge of Sevilla FC, the Andalusians have finished on the podium for possession stats alongside FC Barcelona and Real Madrid. So far in the 2022/23 season, the Andalusians have had more possession than any other team in LaLiga Santander, surpassing Barca in second place. Real Madrid is currently in the first place.
When you consider the players who make up their midfield, this conclusion is entirely logical.
Sevilla FC is more than capable of maintaining possession of the ball on Saturday night because of the presence of skilled players such as Fernando Reges, Ivan Rakiti, Joan Jordán, and Oliver Torres, in addition to Isco, who joined that squad over the summer. It will be fascinating to observe how Sergio Busquets and the rest of the team react when faced with that obstacle.
Even though FC Barcelona has been in commanding form over the previous few weeks, their upcoming match against Sevilla FC will be one of the most difficult away days of the entire season, if not the most difficult. La Liga fans are in for a real treat on Sunday since this match comes just after Real Madrid’s match against Real Betis and Real Sociedad’s match against Atlético de Madrid on Saturday afternoon.