Can 2-0 be turned around?

It’s comeback time again. FC Barcelona went down 2-0 to Sevilla at the Sánchez-Pizjuán in Wednesday’s Copa del Rey quarter final first leg, leaving a job to do when they meet again at the Camp Nou (Wednesday 9.30pm CET) if they are turn this tie around and continue the bid to win the cup for a record fifth year in a row.

So how difficult is it to bounce back from a 2-0 deficit in this competition? Well, Barça have done it before. In 1966, they lost 2-0 to Mallorca in the round of 16 but marched to 5-1 victory in the return.

Less optimistically, however, there have been a further six occasions when Barça suffered the same first leg fate and failed to make amends in the second. But all of these happened over 25 years ago, before the golden era that we are enjoying now. And we all now just how fond Barça have become of magical comeback nights in front of their own fans in recent years…

Comeback versus Sevilla

One such occasion was the Spanish Super Cup of 2010, and against none other than Sevilla. Barça lost the first leg 3-1 in Andalusia, but led by Pep Guardiola on the bench, stormed to 4-0 victory at the Camp Nou, Leo Messi hat-trick included, to claim the trophy – in a season where they’d go on to add the Liga and Champions League titles to the collection.

Sergio Busquets, Gerard Piqué, Sergi Gómez (then of Barça and now of Sevilla) plus Jesús Navas have all ‘survived’ from that memorable encounter.

So now it’s time to do it all over again and win a Copa del Rey semi-finals place for an incredible ninth year in a row. We’ve already done it this January against Levante, so there’s absolutely no reason to believe that lightning really can strike twice in the same place!