Sevilla FC, anyone? Julen Lopetegui’s side is the hottest commodity in Europe not named Manchester City following Wednesday’s 2-0 win over Barcelona in the first leg of their Copa del Rey semifinal matchup.  

That’s now eight straight wins in all competitions for Sevilla (four in LaLiga and four in the Copa), results that’ve pushed the side to fourth in the league (just one point behind Barça) and the cusp of the Copa final.

Sevilla could breathe a sigh of relief over the state of their player Lucas Ocampos on Monday after medical tests revealed the attacking midfielder had not suffered any bone or ligament damage to his ankle in Saturday's 3-0 LaLiga win over Getafe.

Sevilla's medical report said Ocampos, who left the pitch on a stretcher screaming in pain after Getafe's Djené Dakonam trod on his ankle, had sustained a grade two sprain to his left ankle as a result of the tackle.

Barcelona winger Francisco Trincão scored his first goal for the club to snatch a 3-2 win away to Real Betis on Sunday as Ronald Koeman's side pulled off a second comeback victory in the space of four days.

Barça coach Ronald Koeman took the surprising decision to leave Lionel Messi and the in-form Frenkie de Jong out of his starting lineup and saw his side fall behind to a Borja Iglesias strike on the counterattack in the 38th minute.

Reports this week in Spain and abroad suggested Kosovare Asllani, one of the most recognizable and prolific forwards in the game, was on the outs at Real Madrid. The club, in its first season, reportedly wanted more from the Swede, who had yet to score in 2021 despite scoring eight in eight to start the campaign. Spanish daily AS wrote that the star striker had “dried up,” having failed to score since Dec. 13. 

Barcelona racked up 79 percent possession and 36 shots (20 on goal) in Wednesday’s Copa del Rey match against Granada, 29 more shots that the host. The end result was a 5-3 victory that was anything but easy, despite the final score and the wildly mismatched statistics. 

No hay que estar dentro de la cabeza de Lionel Messi para saber que el partido contra el Athletic Bilbao iba ser más extraño de lo normal. Primero, el argentino volvía de una suspensión de dos encuentros después de ser expulsado ante el mismo equipo vasco en la final de la Supercopa de España. Luego, la atención sobre su figura tendría un foco diferente tras la portada del diario “El Mundo”, el cual filtró el astronómico contrato que tiene el “10” con el Barcelona: 555.237.619 euros (673.919.105 dólares) por cuatro temporadas. O sea, $167 millones al año.

Lionel Messi and Antoine Griezmann fired Barcelona to a 2-1 win at home to Athletic Bilbao in LaLiga on Sunday, avenging their recent defeat to the Basque side in the Spanish Super Cup final.

Messi curled in a free kick after 20 minutes for his 650th Barça goal on the day the club pledged to sue Spanish newspaper El Mundo for publishing the full details of the Argentine's contract.