Barça travel to Seville for tomorrow night’s first leg Copa del Rey match with Sevilla without Ronaldinho and Deco. Ronaldinho is still suffering with tendonitis in his left knee and will not play again until the problem disappears. Meanwhile Deco has a problem with the middle adductor muscle in his left thigh. If I am not mistaken this is the same muscle that Deco injured in October that saw him miss six weeks. There is no mention in any reports I have seen about a recurrence of his old injury, but it is worrying all the same.

Sevilla have problems of their own. They are still without goalkeeper Palop and defender Javi Navarro, and they will also have to do without Keita, Kanoute and Kone who have all left for the African Cup of Nations. However, they seem somewhere nearer to the form of last season and on Sunday comfortably beat local rivals Betis 3-0. Luis Fabiano is currently the top scorer in La Liga with 12 goals, and Barça will need to be especially careful with Dani Alves and Jesus Navas on Sevilla’s right wing.

Frank Rijkaard has chosen a 16-man squad and it seems that Barça are taking the game seriously as there are no places for any B-team players and Ezquerro and Sylvinho have been left out for tactical reasons. I have to admit I’m a little divided in my opinion about this. The Copa has to take second place to La Liga and the Champions League, but a game against Sevilla is always one that I want Barça to win. Perhaps Rijkaard could have rested someone, but Saturday’s game at home to Murcia should not be too complicated.

There should definitely be a start for Thierry Henry up front after his improved performance at Mallorca. However, I hope Rijkaard doesn’t play him on the left as I believe we need someone who will get back to mark Alves when he goes forward, and I think Eto’o or Iniesta will do a better job. Edmilson should start in place of Toure Yaya who is away with the Ivory Coast national team, it will be a good chance to see how well he stands up against quality opponents.

The 16 named by Rijkaard are: Valdés, Oier, Zambrotta, Puyol, Thuram, Marquez, Milito, Abidal, Edmilson, Xavi, Gudjohnsen, Iniesta, Giovani, Eto’o, Henry, Bojan.

Possible Starting XI: Valdés, Puyol, Marquez, Milito, Abidal; Xavi, Edmilson, Gudjohnsen; Iniesta, Henry, Eto’o.

My Prediction: Sevilla 1 Barça 1

There is plenty of chance to catch our prediction leader, e10, who after guessing the Mallorca-Barça score now has two correct predictions this season.