Barça 1-1 Sevilla: Recap

Photo by LLUIS GENE/AFP via Getty Images

That wasn’t very good.

Barcleona have dropped points in La Liga for the first time this season thanks to a 1-1 draw against Sevilla at Camp Nou. What started as a great match became a back-and-forth battle with not a lot of quality, and Barça couldn’t play well enough to earn a third straight win.

FIRST HALF

From the very first second this felt like a game between two title contenders: incredible intensity from both sides, two teams not afraid of attacking each other and a bunch of chances. The goals came early, with Luuk De Jong giving Sevilla the lead before an immediate response from Barça through Philippe Coutinho.

The two defenses did not play very well, especially Barça’s and Sevilla found space to counter attack on the left side whenever Jordi Alba ventured forward and Gerard Piqué found himself out of position. Barça, on the other hand, found joy attacking Jesus Navas’ side, with Ansu Fati making dangerous run after dangerous run.

The halftime whistle came and both teams looked exhausted, and a very intense and entertaining first half promised fireworks for the final period.

SECOND HALF

We didn’t quite get fireworks. The teams ran so much in the first half that the tried to have more control of possession and avoid defensive mistakes to not lose the game. Barça played their worst half under Koeman so far, with not a lot of creativity in the final third and a few ugly passing mistakes in midfield that led to Sevilla counter attacks.

As we reached the final 10 minutes we looked set for a draw at Camp Nou, and that’s what we got as both teams were going for the draw at the end, despite a bit of pressure from Barça in injury time. The final whistle came, and this was the first disappointing game from Barça under Koeman.

It’s not the end of the world, but it’s good to come back down to Earth after the first two big wins. This is still a long process to become a great team. Let’s calm down.

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Barcelona: Neto; Roberto, Araujo, Piqué, Alba (Dest 75’); Busquets, De Jong; Griezmann (Trincão 60’), Coutinho (Pjanic 75’), Ansu Fati (Pedri 60’); Messi

Goal: Coutinho (10’)

Sevilla: Bono; Navas, Koundé, Diego Carlos, Acuña; Jordán (Torres 84’), Fernando, Rakitic (Gudelj 78’); Suso (Munir 61’), De Jong (Fernández 84’), Ocampos (En-Nesyri 61’)

Goal: De Jong (8’)

Source: barcablaugranes.com