FC Barcelona trained this morning behind closed doors in preparation for tomorrow’s Copa Del Rey Clash against Sevilla. This will be the first of three matches against Sevilla over the next 12 days.  Training was held at the Club’s training grounds and included four players from the reserves: Víctor Vázquez, Jonathan Dos Santos, Thiago and Gai Assulin.  Sevilla will be without many key players such as Frederic Kanoute and Luis Fabiano, while Barcelona will be without the services of Seydou Keita and Toure Yaya.

Tuesday’s night’s match is the first of three between Barça and Sevilla over the next two weeks. The return leg of the Cup tie in the Sánchez Pizjuán will be played next week on Wednesday before the two teams meet again for a  league match the following Sunday back in Barcelona.

Today’s session was held at the Club’s training grounds with the addition of four players from the Barça Athletic. Those players were Víctor Vázquez, Jonathan Dos Santos, Thiago and Gai Assulin.  Seydou Keita and Toure Yaya were absent due to their participation in the African Nations Cups tournament for their respective nations.  The only other absence was that of defender Eric Abidal who stayed in the gym to exercise after feeling some pain in his hamstring following the Villarreal game but is unlikely to miss tomorrow’s match.

Sevilla, the 2007 Copa Del Rey champions will be without the presence of Frederic Kanoute, Luis Fabiano, Didier Zokora, Sergio Sanchez, Federico Fazio, Lautaro Acosta, Javi Varas, Tom de Mul, Sebastien Squillaci and Adriano Correia due to injuries and also participation in the African Nations Cup.  Thus, Sevilla’s manager, Manolo Jiminez, called up players from the youth setup to add to the roster that currently has only 14 healthy players. Sevilla are coming off back to back league losses and have dropped to fifth in the league standings.

Barcelona will hold one final training session tomorrow just after midday in the Camp Nou before playing Sevilla later on that evening.