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Lionel Messi will be hoping to continue his magic show on Sunday when Spanish champions Barcelona play away to Sevilla.

On Tuesday the
Argentine caught the headlines around the world by leading Barca to
another Champions League defeat of Arsenal, scoring twice in the 3-1
win.

Messi has scored 45
goals in 40 games this season in all competitions, and is tied on 27
goals in the Liga scorers’ chart with Cristiano Ronaldo of Real Madrid.

Though Barca are
seven points ahead of Real atop the table, the Catalans will be looking
to win at Sevilla for the third year running.

Captain Carles
Puyol, who missed the Arsenal showdown with a knee injury remains a
doubt for today’s game. However, fellow defender Gerard Pique – who was
suspended on Tuesday – will be back, which means that Sergio Busquets
will be moved back into midfield.

Sevilla striker Luis Fabiano is injured, so leading their attack will be Alvaro Negredo.

Negredo though
admitting that the game will be a tough duel said: ‘We want to move up
in the table (they are currently seventh) and that is why we must win.
It won’t be easy, but we might be able to cause them trouble.’

Caceres warning

Also Sevilla defender Martin Caceres said he is anticipating a tough encounter when he faces Barcelona today.

The on-loan Catalan
stopper said a complete performance from his teamates would be the
minimum required to take any points from the La Liga contest at the
Estadio Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan.

“We will have to be completely focused for 90 minutes, because Barcelona have such quality,” Caceres said.

“We are going to
try and impose our game, because we are at home and Barcelona obviously
will want to win. We will need a bit of luck and a will to win, because
everyone wants to play in this game.”

Uruguayan
international Caceres recounted positive memories of his season at the
Camp Nou in 2008 before a loan spell at Juventus, and said the 5-0
thrashing by Pep Guardiola’s men of Sevilla earlier this season was
fresh on his mind.

“I remember it (my time in Barcelona) because it was good to wear their shirt for a year,” he said.

“I have friends
there and I played in the loss at the Camp Nou last year. I expect that
this match will be difficult, but the manager (Gregorio Manzano) knows
how they will play and will decide our starting lineup. I think that we
all have the desire to win, although it will be very difficult.”

Other games

In other games,
Giuseppe Rossi and The Yellow Submarines hope to keep pace with third
ranked Valencia with a victory against Sporting. Although Villarreal
fell victim to Diego Forlan and Atlético Madrid this past weekend, they
were successful in the first leg of their Europa League clash with
German side Bayer Leverkusen. Rossi scored for his second consecutive
game, bringing his total to 23 goals in all play with The Yellow
Submarine, and Villarreal were victorious 3-1 in the BayArena.

Sporting has
claimed points in four of their last five matches. Albeit only one
victory and three draws, one of them was against Barcelona.

These sides drew
their last match up this season and split the series last year. Also,
bottom side Malaga are away to Real Sociedad while fellow strugglers
Levante will face Mallorca, and Osasuna will play hosts to Racing
Santander, another lowly outfit. Sixth-placed Espanyol will be at home
to Deportivo Coruna.

Malaga are bottom with just 23 points. Almeria follows on 25, Hercules on 26, Zaragoza on 27, Gijon on 28 and Osasuna on 29.

The 28th round of matches will finish on Monday with Athletic Bilbao away to midtable Getafe.

Bilbao are currently fifth, just one point above Espanyol, and are
very keen to return to the Europa league after a year’s absence from
continental football.