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Barcelona got back to winning ways with an entertaining 4-2 win over Sevilla at the Camp Nou, though Lionel Messi's injury in the first-half marred the game. The Argentine ace was wreathing in pain as he landed awkwardly to the ground, seriously injuring his right arm.
But he had already done his job by then, scoring once and assisting Coutinho for the opener. The hosts, regardless, continued to dominate and struck twice more in the second-half. Los Nervionenses put up a great fight too, pulling two back through Pablo Sarabia and Luis Muriel in the final 10 minutes to ensure a frantic finish.
Here are the hits and flops from the game:
Hit: The goals
Barcelona versus Sevilla is amongst those fixtures that always promises the thrills and spills. Today was no different: hosts thoroughly dominating in the first 45 minutes, Sevilla pushing for a late comeback, and a six-goal salvo. Barring Suarez's penalty - which was although dispatched nonchalantly - the other five goals were eye-catching and reeked quality.
Coutinho commenced the goalfest by delicately chipping the ball over into the top corner before Messi soon piled on with his trademark run and sliced through the Sevilla defence to double the advantage. Rakitic and Muriel scored almost similar types of goal from the edge of the area, but the Croatian went for a low-drive whereas the latter unleashed a curler into the bottom corner. Nonetheless, both were amazing.
Finally, Sarabia got one for himself too, arrowing a shot that took a deflection off Clement Lenglet on its way into the back of the net. But that was still a wowzer of a goal.
So it wasn't just a goalfest, but a festival of top-drawer strikes.
Flop: Sevilla's finishing
Until the point where Sarabia put the visitors on the scoresheet, Sevilla's finishing was disappointing. They wasted quite a few chances and the attack looked very disjointed. In fact, Pablo Machin's side failed to muster a single shot on target at half-time. Guilherme Arana came closest when he hit the post, and that was pretty much everything Sevilla had to show for their efforts before the break.
Even when Barcelona's tempo slowed down without Messi, they were hardly testing. Navas and Arana tried to feed Ben Yedder inside the area, but the crosses were wayward. Banega too tried to whip in a few deliveries from set-pieces to little success. At one point, he did pick out Carrico from a corner, but the latter steered it over the bar.
Much to their own delight, Sevilla's attacking game marginally improved after the break and grew more threatening with each passing minute. They ended the game with two away goals eventually, but the damage was already done by then.
Hit: Ter Stegen
Barcelona's shot-stopper had little to do in the first half, but when things started to hot up after the break, he was called into question on a handful of occasions and the German stepped up to the plate. His amazing double save in the second half was the highlight of the evening.
Sarabia caught Barcelona's defence asleep at the wheel and tried a shot from 15-yards out, which Ter Stegen brilliantly denied with a one-handed save. Ben Yedder tried to pounce on the rebound by firing across the face of the goal, but the Blaugrana netminder yet again showed tremendous reflex and threw his entire frame on the line to parry the ball away.
He could do little about both the goals that Sevilla eventually did score as they were way out of his reach, but Ter Stegen kept it from narrowing the scoreline even further.
Flop: Wissam Ben Yedder
Just two slides ago we delved through Sevilla's listless attack. And now, to elaborate further on that, Ben Yedder was one of the primary reasons for it. The Frenchman was completely ineffective in the attack, especially in the first-half, and endured a night to forget.
He mostly cut an isolated figure upfront during the initial spell, starved out of service and offering no great shakes with his off the ball movements either. In four attempts at goal, only one ended up on target and even that, as aforementioned, was blocked by Ter Stegen, though he should've scored that one given the minimal distance between him and the net.
However, Ben Yedder did redeem himself a little when he offloaded for Muriel to score Sevilla's second, bagging an assist at least to show for his efforts. But he knows he could've done better on the night.
Hit: Luis Suarez
Even though he didn't bag a goal from open play, Suarez turned in arguably his best performance of this season. He started off on a bright note but upped his game once Messi limped off with an injury. The Uruguayan harried Sevilla with his electric runs and quick passes in and around the area.
With 7 attempts in all, he was the most challenging player on the field. He even hit the woodwork once. However, Suarez finally got his deserved goal when he won the penalty himself and finished it confidently himself. He sent Vaclik the wrong way and placed it in the top corner. Before that, Suarez had also assisted Messi and in all, laid three key passes on the night.
He also linked up well with Coutinho and Dembele, even drifting out wide on occasions. The Barcelona hitman didn't let Messi's absence affect his team as he was creatively at the heart of everything that came through the hosts.
Amazing all-around performance from Suarez, who seems to be coming back to his prime right before a tough week ahead.
