The Blaugrana have the advantage of playing at home first, as they host Sevilla in the first leg of the Copa Del Rey 1/8 round.



FC Barcelona have been drawn with defending champions Sevilla for the next stage of the Copa Del Rey. The Catalan giants were pitched against Kanoute's team after the Draws were held Friday at noon. Both the 1/8 and 1/4 final rounds were drawn simultaneously. Barca's league oponents this weekend, Real Mallorca were drawn against Real Madrid. Getafe, who eliminated Barca last season, will square up against Levante. The full draw for the next two rounds are as follows:


1/8 Final:


Two legs - to be played January 9th and January 16th. Teams drawn first play home leg first.


1 - Recreativo - Villarreal

2 - Sevilla - Barcelona
3 - Zaragoza - Racing Santander

4 - Real Mallorca - Real Madrid
5 - Athletic Bilbao - Espanyol

6 - Real Betis - Valencia
7 - Atletico Madrid - Valladolid

8 - Getafe - Levante


1/4 Final:


Two legs - to be played January 23rd and January 30th. Teams drawn first play home leg first.


Winner 1 - Winner 2
Winner 6 - Winner 7

Winner 8 - Winner 4
Winner 3 - Winner 5

Celtic's CEO makes an unexpected reaction to the news of being paired with the feared Catalan giants in the champions league next stage.


Celtic's Peter lewwell was all bright and aglow with satisfaction after the champions league draws were concluded. Speaking to the press, the confident Scotts team official announced that Celtic had secured a good pairing, one that he described as absolutley fantastic! Peter shrieked:

It's an absolutely fantastic tie for us. It's a formidable task clearly. Our record against Barcelona is good and we hope we can get through. These are formidable games for Celtic and it's a huge task, but we go into the game with hope. We wouldn't be here unless we thought we could go through. We will be doing our damnedest. Gordon Strachan has done a fantastic job to get us in the last 16 for two years running, and we would be delighted for him, the coaching staff and the players to get through to the quarters.

The CEO is looking forward to another visit by the Catalan giants after previous meetings in the past three years. The Celtic official speaks:

We have a great connection with the Barcelona people and we are looking forward to welcoming them back to Celtic Park. It's another great tie in store.

Lawwell accepts, then quickly discards the underdog tag which Celtic has been bestowed with since the announcemnet of the pairing:

Any team that we would have got in this draw we would have been the underdogs, but we relish being the underdogs. We are looking forward to a fantastic night and we hope to give a great account of ourselves.

Only time will tell how well Celtic can hold out against a new look FC Barcelona squad which is glaringly different from the ones the Hoops have played in the past.

Txiki Begiristain, FC Barcelona's technical director is cautious in celebrating Barca's champions league opponents.


Casting our minds back, like Txiki has done, we'll recall that fateful day when Celtic knocked Barca out of the Uefa Cup. That was three years ago. Now it's time for a FC Barcelona to take revenge, but Txiki is not too quick to draw out his sword. The director says:

We already had the advantage before with the fact that we are playing the second leg at home. Apart from that, Celtic will be a team that will not let us relax at all, because we must not forget that they eliminated us a few years ago in the UEFA Cup. We hope that there will be no repeat of that and we will have to be prepared for the atmosphere that we will go into there. The atmosphere is still can cause us problems, create real pressure, and give them an edge to their style of play. There are elements of Celtic's game that are very strong and we will have to be careful.

Txiki also refrains from making any predictions on FC Barcelona's future in the champions league, prefering to take it one step at a time:

We are in the first knockout and it is only December. We are going to try and progress to the next round and if we reach the quarter finals then we will be able to see things more clearly.