Barcelona lost its second straight home game in La Liga this season. It was an almost
flawless performance by the visitors, with the healthy stars doing their job, but a terrible
five-minute stretch led to two goals by Sevilla, from Krohn-Dehli and Iborra. Neymar Jr. even scored a goal for the Catalan giants, but an
unlucky afternoon ended with a 2-1 loss for the Blaugrana.
FIRST HALF
When you lack creative players, why not counter-attack?
Barcelona fielded a lineup full of hard workers,
but with very few players with the brains and skills to create special things. So Luis Enrique,
predicting a high-pressing and attacking performance from his opponents, told his team
to defend well and unleash as much counters as possible, with Neymar Jr. and Luis Suárez relieved of their defensive duties to focus only
on wreaking havoc on the Sevilla s defense. It
worked. It was the best 45 minutes we saw from Barça
this whole season. We didn't see any goals,
but we saw a very focused, hard-working, precise team who knew what to do. Neymar
and Suárez were very active and ridiculously close to finding the net, but the ball just didn't go in. The defense was also smart and able to
control Sevilla's pressure with a good first half from the back-four and returning keeper Claudio Bravo.
At the break, a scoreless draw that felt like a
win. Barça just needed goals to confirm a very
good performance.
SECOND HALF
The goals actually came, but it was not from
the Blaugrana. Sevilla unleashed a
spectacular counter-attack of their own, and a
Gameiro cross found Krohn-Dehli wide open in
the box, and the Danish midfielder buried
home the opening goal. Just five minutes
later, Barça lost the ball again, the
Rojiblancos transitioned fast, and a good
cross from Krohn-Dehli found a wide open
Iborra who bagged the second score with a
well-placed header. Two-nothing.
Enrique tried to change the game by putting
Dani Alves and Sandro in place of Mathieu and
Munir, with Sergi Roberto going to the
midfield. Neymar started to show up again,
but goalkeeper Sergio Rico stopped him three
times in one minute with a string of
spectacular saves, which instantly turned the
Sevilla goal-stopper into one of the main
characters on the match.
The Catalans won a golden chance to get their
first goal when Trémoulinas stopped a shot
with his hand. Neymar stepped up to the spot,
and didn't disappoint, putting the Blaugrana
back to the game. Barça tried everything, but
all Rojiblancos were in the box blocking every
shot.
In the end, Barça fought hard and played well,
but lost. That's the worst part.
Sevilla: Rico; Coke, Andreolli, Kolodziejczak,
Trémoulinas (Mariano); N'Zonzi, Krychowiak;
Krohn-Dehli, Iborra (Reyes), Vitolo; Gameiro
(Llorente)
Goals: Krohn-Dehli (52'), Iborra (57')
Barcelona: Bravo; Roberto, Piqué, Mathieu
(Dani Alves), Alba; Mascherano, Busquets,
Rakitic; Munir (Sandro), Suárez, Neymar
Goal: Neymar (74' p.)
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