Barca eye Cup win to help heal CL wounds
Unpredictable Sevilla stand in Catalans way
BARCELONA, April 19, (RTRS): Barcelona will target a record-extending 30th King’s Cup triumph when they play Sevilla in Saturday’s final which would also virtually assure them of a second domestic double in three seasons, reinforcing their dominance in Spain.
A victory for Barca in the first final at the Wanda Metropolitano stadium in Madrid would also go some way towards healing the wounds from their — by their standards — catastrophic failure in the Champions League.
The team’s rampant run towards a 25th Liga title while staying unbeaten has been overshadowed by their devastating 3-0 defeat to AS Roma, which saw them exit Europe’s top competition on away goals after blowing a 4-1 lead from the first leg.
It has also harmed coach Ernesto Valverde’s reputation in an otherwise impeccable first season in charge.
Valverde was even criticised in some sections of the Catalan press in the aftermath of their European exit for taking the King’s Cup too seriously, with some blaming his team’s embarrassment in Rome on his reluctance to rotate his squad.
Barca’s third successive European failure will be all the harder to swallow should Real Madrid go on to win the Champions League for a third season in a row, although the Catalans’ domestic achievements are impressive in their own right.
If Barca beat Sevilla, they will become the first team since the Spanish Civil War started to win the cup four years in a row, and thereby almost certainly seal the club’s eighth domestic double.
Standing in their way are a hugely unpredictable Sevilla side who have endured a series of humiliating defeats in the league under coach Vincenzo Montella but who tend to come into their own on the biggest of occasions.
Sevilla knocked Manchester United out of the Champions League,
Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo shoots the ball during a Spanish La Liga soccer match between Real Madrid and Athletic Bilbao at the Santiago
Bernabeu Stadium in Madrid on April 18. (AP)