1 of 6, beginning of the end?

I know many of my readers are eager to read my comments on Barcelona’s eventual ejection at the hands of Sevilla in this season’s Copa del Rey so here they are.

Despite missing a few of their stars Sevilla took the match to La Blaugrana at the Camp Nou eventually running out 2-1 winners. Having it all to do in the second leg, Pep acknowledged that some of the fringe players were a bit too weak to play a team of Sevilla’s caliber and opted for a relatively ‘full strength’ team for the return leg. This seemed to be the way to go in the first half as Barça created enough opportunities to put the match to rest but squandered all. Never have I seen such a waste of chances by a world class team. It was very reminiscent of Manchester united FA Cup tie against Leeds. Sevilla’s man of the match Palop was on his game last night. His rearguard was nonexistent for most of the match and he single handedly kept Barça at bay. All in all, Barça played some great football last night and really were unfortunate to not get that oh so important second goal to win the tie.

One of my friends was oh so eager to remind me that “Madrid fans are licking their chops in anticipation of the demise of the once mighty Barça”. To this I say that championships aren’t won in January. Real Madrid are indeed a team on the rise, but FC Barcelona are still the team to beat. As one of my old coaches used to say, “one swallow doesn’t make a summer”.