Cup final of opposites
BIG MATCH: BARCELONA’S PRAGMATISM V SEVILLA’S UNPREDICTABILITY
Madrid
Barcelona and Sevilla will know the success of their respective seasons is on the line when they go head-to-head in the Copa del Rey final tonight. The cup would certainly have been third on Barca’s list of priorities only a month ago, but the shattering Champions League defeat to Roma has altered perceptions of what might have otherwise have been a stellar campaign.
Unbeaten in La Liga and virtually certain to win the title, a domestic double may not be enough to remove the lingering disappointment from Rome.
“I live with a little anxiety,” Barca midfielder Philippe Coutinho said this week. “But it is a very important and very happy moment, playing a final only two or three months after arriving.”
In moulding his team around organisation, hard work and the irrepressible Lionel Messi, Barcelona coach Ernesto Valverde has steered this team away from the club’s more free-flowing, attacking traditions.
He has proven a master of extraction, drawing the very best from a squad that unexpectedly lost one of its star strikers in Neymar last summer, and owns far less talent than its predecessors.
Sevilla have fewer questions to answer in terms of entertaintment. Since Vincenzo Montella took charge in December, they have beaten Atletico Madrid twice, Manchester United and drawn with Bayern Munich and Barcelona.
They have also conceded five goals at home to Real Betis and lost to minnows Alaves, Eibar and Leganes. In their draw against Barca, they shipped two goals in the 87th and 89th minutes.
“We know how they play, that they have quality and a fast counter-attack,” Coutinho said. “The most important thing is to think about ourselves, how we have to play and what we should do to win.”
While Barca, the defending champions, are chasing their 30th Copa del Rey triumph in the Wanda Metropolitano stadium’s first tournament final, Sevilla are bidding to win their sixth, and first since 2010. –