Barcelona carved out an impressive away win at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan yesterday, beating Sevilla in a come-from-behind victory with goals from Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez. The Blaugrana fell behind in the 15th minute of the game following a good start from the Andalusians, with Vitolo scoring the opener.
Messi leveled for Barcelona in the 43rd minute with his 27th goal against Sevilla – they are the club against whom he has scored the most goals. He then set up Suarez for the winner after capitalizing on a mistake from Sevilla defender Carrico.
The result leaves Barca 2 points behind Real in the La Liga standings and keeps up the pressure on the capital side after their 3-0 win over Leganes earlier in the day. These are the player ratings from the game:
Barcelona
Marc-Andre ter Stegen: 6/10.
The German international made 3 saves in the game, but Ter Stegen was not his usual, confident self while dealing with crosses coming into the penalty area. He has had better games than this for Barca
Javier Mascherano: 7/10
Mascherano was the best performer of a rather exposed Barcelona defense yesterday. The former Liverpool man pulled off several important interceptions, keeping a check on the Sevilla scoreline in the first half.
Samuel Umtiti: 6/10
The youngster was a little nervous in the first half and was partly responsible for the Sevilla goal as he allowed Vazquez to play the ball to Sarabia, who himself played in Vitolo with a perfectly paced through ball. Umtiti performed much better in the second half.
Lucas Digne: 7/10
The Frenchman remained untroubled for much of the match, but Digne put in one of the best performances of his Barca career so far. He was an available option going forward at all times.
Sergio Roberto: 4/10
The most culpable Barcelona defender for the goal as he allowed Vitolo to run through clean on goal and finish. Roberto remained under intense pressure all game long and did not perform to his standards.
Sergio Busquets: 7/10
He was at ease for most periods of the game. Busquets did an eminently perfect job at the base of midfield, and he picks up his usual 7/10 rating for the game. There is not much more one could expect of even the world’s best defensive midfielder in this game.
Ivan Rakitic: 7/10
In his 3rd season at Barcelona, returning to the Sanchez Pizjuan is not as nostalgic as it once was for Rakitic. The Croat did not have the best of games but was effective for the most part of the game.
Denis Suarez: 6/10
Handed a rare start in an important game due to the absence of Andres Iniesta, Suarez did not disappoint yesterday. He rose to the occasion and was a lively presence on the pitch in the second half, but his 6/10 rating is because of his rather timid first-half display.
Neymar: 8/10
While Neymar did not get on the scoresheet in a rather rare occurrence yesterday, the Brazilian was his usual, imperious self against a motivated Sevilla side. He set Messi up with another sweet counterattacking goal reminiscent of their mid-week tango against City and kept Sevilla’s defenders on their toes all night long.
Lionel Messi: 8.5/10
Messi was the man of the match yesterday, scoring one and setting up another for Suarez to make the crucial difference on the scoreline. The legend rose to the occasion, as is often the case for him against the Andalusians, and turned in one of his personal best performances of the season.
Luis Suarez: 8/10
Like most of his team, Suarez was not in his best form in the first half, but he turned up for the game with all of his tricks in the second period. Apart from scoring the winner, Suarez was crucially involved in nearly all of Barca’s best attacks of the game and made his presence felt.
Substitutes Rafinha and Andre Gomes are unrated as they played less than 20 minutes of the game.
Sevilla
Sergio Rico: 8/10
If Sevilla had managed to draw or win the game, Rico would definitely be the man of the match for this game. He pulled off 5 crucial saves and snuffed out a number of half-chances expertly, keeping Sevilla relevant in the game till the end.
Adil Rami: 6/10
While the Frenchman did pull off a number of important interceptions and broke up a number of Barcelona attacks by himself, he was understandably not at his best in the game. Messi and Neymar’s dribbling drew him out of position on enough occasions for us to hand him a 6/10 rating.
Daniel Carrico: 5/10
Carrico was the chief culprit of the Sevilla defence for Barca’s second goal, as he was stripped of possession in a dangerous spot and he could not recover in time to mark Luis Suarez, who calmly converted the chance. While he had to remain hyperactive in dealing with wave after wave of Barca attacks, his mistake cost Sevilla 2 points.
Sergio Escudero: 7/10
He was one of Sevilla’s chief attacking hubs yesterday, racing up and down their left and troubling Sergi Roberto with his movement. The Spaniard is staking a claim for the national team with his performances this season.
Mariano: 7/10
Mariano had a few nervy moments in the game, as is expected of a defender facing the MSN trio, however, he stood his ground and kept his composure throughout the game. He was also a lively presence in attack, linking up occasionally with Pablo Sarabia to good effect.
Samir Nasri: 7.5/10 Nasri performed consistently, even brilliantly at times, on his first-team return from a recurring thigh injury. A player of his quality would do well to kick on from this performance and drive Sevilla to a Champions League berth this season.
Vitolo: 8/10
Apart from scoring the opener, Vitolo also used his pace to devastating effect for the rest of the game. Jorge Sampaoli would be delighted with his performance despite the tough result.
Pablo Sarabia: 7.5/10
Sarabia was the troublemaker-in-chief for Barcelona, as he was dangerous with the ball at his feet, as well as while laying onto his teammates. He bagged the assist for Vitolo’s goal with a lovely through ball that left Vitolo in acres of space to run into.
Steven N’Zonzi: 8/10
He ran like a maniac for the duration of the game and was the livewire of a confident Sevilla display as he found himself covering every blade of grass on the pitch. He was great at closing spaces down for the MSN trio and limiting Barca’s clear-cut chances to a bare minimum.
Luciano Vietto: 7/10
Although Vietto did not get on the scoresheet, his pace caused tremendous headaches to Barcelona’s centre-back pairing of Mascherano and Umtiti, who were simply not fast enough to deal with him. His influence did wane in the second half, however.
Franco Vazquez: 6/10
Like his strike partner, Vazquez had a great game in the first half, but his waning influence in the second half caused Sampaoli to bring on Ganso in his place after the 70th minute. Vazquez can take a lot of encouragement from this performance, though.
Substitutes:
Ganso: 6.5/10
He came on in the 68th minute to try and fetch Sevilla a goal in the closing stages of the game, but the Brazilian was unable to make much of an impact. Not for the lack of trying, however, as Ganso put in a decent shift for the time that he was on the pitch.
Iborra: N/A
Joaquin Correa: N/A
