After the first half, Xavi will remember the tiki-taka passing of the old Barcelona, when he was a key cog in the team’s midfield. The final product was there every game except on Sunday against Sevilla.
At halftime, Xavi swallowed his pride and told his players to blast the ball into the penalty area instead of passing through a crowded opponent. Barcelona dominated the second half and defeated Sevilla 3-0 to move eight points clear at the top of La Liga.
Barcelona took advantage of Real Madrid’s earlier mistake to extend their lead in the Spanish league.
Raphinha, who was in trouble, and Jordi Alba, who came on as a sub, were the two most important players after halftime. Each of them scored a goal and set up another to help start the win. Sergio Busquets, a veteran player for Barcelona, went down with an ankle injury just five minutes into the game. His replacement, Franck Kessie, helped Alba score the first goal and did a good job of filling in for the captain.
Sevilla didn’t put up much of a fight at all during the 90 minutes, and Barcelona controlled possession from the beginning to the end. During the first half, they were able to make the home team mad, but after halftime, they couldn’t handle the repeated crosses and diagonal balls into their penalty area. At one point, Jorge Sampaoli put Ivan Rakitic up front as a False 9, which showed how desperate they were to find a way to attack, but there wasn’t one.
The Sporting News will have reporters at the game and will update their coverage with live scores, comments, and highlights.
Barcelona against Sevilla final score 1H 2H Final Barcelona 0 3 3 Sevilla 0 0 0
Goals for Barcelona came from Jordi Alba (58th minute), Gavi (71st minute), and Raphinha (79th minute).
A few confirmed casts:
In a 4-4-2 formation, Barcelona’s starting lineup looks like this (right to left): 1. ter Stegen (GK) — 23. Kounde, 4. R. Araujo (Alonso, 80′), 15. Christensen, 18. Alba (Balde, 84′) — 8. Pedri, 5. Busquets (Kessie, 9′), 21. de Jong, 6. Gavi, who replaced Fati in the 80th minute; 22. Raphinha, who replaced Torres in the 84th minute; 9. Lewandowski.
13. Bounou (GK) — 2. Montiel, 22. Bade (Sevilla, 5-4-1, right-to-left) 6. Grudelj, 4. Rekik, 19. M. Acuna (Ocampos, 65′) — 21. O. Torres (Lamela, 46′), 8. Jordan, 10. Raki, 18. P. Gueye (Fernando, 83′) — 15. En-Nesyri (Gil, 46′).
Live updates, highlights, and discussion for Barcelona’s match vs Sevilla
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FULLTIME: Barcelona 3-0 Sevilla
Xavi made an adjustment to Barcelona’s strategy before halftime, and it turned out to be a brilliant move. Instead of trying to pass their way through Sevilla’s crowded defensive unit, Barcelona started playing crosses and diagonal balls to go around it. The second half played out just how the head coach had envisioned it, and as a result, Barcelona have successfully closed the gap to eight points at the top of the table.
Raphinha ended up being the Man of the Match despite having another poor first half. He scored a goal, had an assist, and provided lots of danger by racing at defenders and making far-post runs to grab onto diagonal balls from midfield. His play earned him the award.
