Barcelona's defeat against AC Milan has sent mass amounts of shockwaves throughout the footballing world. How could the all mighty Barcelona lose to an AC Milan side who has not been all that consistent this year, and, they were without cup tied Mario Balotelli, as well as Robinho?
Regardless of how you break it down, it happened, but now the Blaugrana will need to bounce back on Saturday against Sevilla who has been impressive as of late.
Unai Emery's side has won three of their last five matches, with a draw and a loss along the way. The only loss came at the Bernabeu against Real Madrid in a 4-1 final. Although Sevilla may have won three, all three of those matches were at home, while the defeat also came away from home.
Away from the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan, Sevilla has been extremely poor. They have only managed one victory on the road, with four draws and seven defeats. Staying out of the loss column on Saturday will not be easy, especially with Emery considering resting some players for their Copa del Rey semi-final match against Atletico Madrid on Wednesday.
The Sevillistas will be without Andres Palop, Cicinho, Diego Perotti and Piotr Trochowski who are all out injured. Fortunately for Emery, he will have Rakitic avaialble. The Croatian midfielder has scored two goals and has three assists in Sevilla's last five matches.
Travling to the Nou Camp after a defeat for the Blaugrana is nearly a death trap for Sevilla. The last time Barcelona lost to Real Sociedad in January, they bounced back with an emphatic 5-1 victory over Osasuna at the Nou Camp.
Tito Vilanova's assistant Jordi Roura believes his side is prepared to put their loss against Milan behind them.
"I've always said we must differentiate between competitions, now we have the league and for us this is simple. It's a very important game for us to recover our senses," Roura said at a press conference.
Previous Matches
09-29-12 Sevilla 2-3 Barcelona
03-17-12 Sevilla 0-2 Barcelona
10-22-11 Barcelona 0-0 Sevilla
03-13-11 Sevilla 1-1 Barcelona
10-30-10 Barcelona 5-0 Sevilla
08-21-10 Barcelona 4-0 Sevilla (Spanish Supercup)
Prediction
Without a defeat at the Nou Camp in 21 matches across all competitions, Barcelona's odds of pulling out a win against Sevilla on Saturday look pretty good. When you throw in the fact that Sevilla has not won an away match in their last nine, things look even better for the Blaugrana.
The loss against Milan will give the Barcelona players more motivation to put it behind them. Unfortunately, it looks as if Sevilla is going to be the sacrificed team to have to pay for what the Blaugrana had to deal with in Italy.
Given Sevilla's record away from home, this match could be well out of reach before halftime for the visitors.
Barcelona 4-1 Sevilla
