Seville derby to finish at last

The remaining 34 minutes of the Copa del Rey quarter-final between Real Betis Balompié and Sevilla FC will be played on Tuesday night.

Sevilla edge
The conclusion to the second-leg tie will begin at 20.00CET behind closed doors at the Coliseum Alfonso Pérez, home of Getafe CF, who like FC Barcelona and RC Deportivo La Coruña are waiting in the semi-finals. The original fixture on 28 February was suspended when Sevilla coach Juande Ramos was hit on the head by a bottle thrown from the crowd. At the time, Sevilla had just taken a 1-0 aggregate lead through Frédéric Kanouté's goal, but both teams are insisting that anything could still happen.

Treble dream
Ramos and his opposite number Luis Fernandez have been allowed to change their lineups from last time, provided they use players selected in the original squad three weeks ago. Although still on course for a UEFA Cup, league and Spanish Cup treble, especially after Sunday's 2-0 Primera División victory against RC Celta de Vigo, Sevilla are wary of being favourites and Ramos has warned against complacency against a Betis side fighting the threat of relegation.

Injury worries
The 52-year-old said: "Betis have nothing to lose so anything will be positive for them. They have the chance to turn things around because strange things can happen in football." Sevilla, level on points with Barcelona at the Primera División summit, may be without goalkeeper Andrés Palop and striker Kanouté with calf and groin problems respectively, although only Renato (ankle) definitely misses out.

'No pressure'
Betis, 15th in the table, have a deeper injury list. As well as the pain of Saturday's 2-0 defeat at RCD Mallorca, both Fabrice Pancrate and Rafael Sobis have suffered knee injuries with the former ruled out for two months at least. They join David Odonkor (knee), Johann Vogel (knee) and the suspended Nano on the sidelines, while Branko Ilič is on international duty with Slovenia. Despite the setbacks, Fernández is staying positive. "We have to be upbeat because there's no pressure on us," he said. "You can score two goals in a minute so we have to respect the competition and give all we have."