Barcelona will finish the weekend in third place in the La Liga table but have closed the gap at the top to just two points thanks to a hard-fought 4-1 win away to Sevilla at the Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán on Sunday night. The action in Seville was wild and non-stop for all 90 minutes with big chances, controversial calls and great goals, and ended with Barça finding a way to win with 10 men to light the title race on fire.
FIRST HALF
The start of the game was absolutely wild with two goals in a span of 60 seconds: the first came on a short corner from Barça in which Raphinha found Iñigo Martínez with a cross into the box, and the center-back’s header was tapped home at the far post by Robert Lewandowski, giving the visitors the lead and temporarily silencing the crowd.
But Sevilla responded immediately, scoring from the ensuing kickoff with a passing routine right out of the training ground that caught Barça’s high line off guard and released Saúl Ñíguez all alone through the middle, and the midfielder gave Rubén Vargas an easy tap-in to send the crowd back into a frenzy and set up what remained a crazy first half throughout.
Barça had most of the possession and focused most of their attacks on the right wing, with Lamine Yamal constantly involved in the Blaugrana’s most dangerous moves and coming close to multiple times to creating a big chance for himself or a teammate. Pedri and Raphinha also helped pull the strings, and the Catalans missed multiple chances to retake the lead.
They also lost Ronald Araujo to an ankle injury midway through the half, but Pau Cubarsí did an excellent job replacing the captain as Barça did a solid job keeping Sevilla from creating another big opportunity. But the home team almost found a second goal just before halftime thanks to a beautiful bicycle kick by Dodi Lukébakio that required a brilliant save from Wojciech Szczesny.
The halftime whistle came to end an opening period full of intensity and chances for both sides, and Barça were playing well enough to deserve more from the game. They just needed more poise and efficiency in front of goal, and they needed to stay alert to the danger offered by Sevilla on the counter.
SECOND HALF
Hansi Flick is never shy about making halftime substitutions looking to help his team, and the coach made an inspired change at the break when Fermín López replaced Gavi and immediately scored with his first touch of the game, heading home a perfect cross by Pedri to put Barça back in front just 57 seconds into the final period.
There was almost a repeat of the craziness of the start of the game when Vargas equalized for Sevilla again just two minutes later, but the goal was ruled out for a couple of offsides in the buildup.
The hosts were not discouraged by the negative turn of events and continued to fight for a comeback, and had a penalty shout denied when Djibril Sow went down in the box under the challenge of Jules Kounde, but both the referee and VAR didn’t see a strong enough push by the Barça full-back to give the hosts a spot kick.
And right after that the Catalans secured a crucial two-goal lead on the road as Pau Cubarsí found Raphinha outside the box and the Brazilian fired a rocket into the bottom corner to double the Blaugrana advantage, and end an insane 10-minute period to begin the second half with Barça on top.
But we were still not done with the insanity: right at the hour mark came a very bad tackle by Fermín on Sow which initially drew a yellow card for the young midfielder, but a quick VAR review changed the caution to a straight red and Barça were down to 10 men with a half-hour to go.
Sevilla coach García Pimienta immediatelly made two attacking substitutions, and the home team became even more aggressive as they sensed a real chance to get back in the contest. Flick looked to shore up his side by sending on Eric García and Dani Olmo from the bench, trying to fortify the midfield and make his team a more dangerous counter-attacking threat.
Barça did a remarkable job of managing the game in the final 25 minutes and didn’t allow a single big chance to Sevilla, who slowly but surely ran out of energy and hope. And in the 89th minute came the knockout punch when Raphinha sent a free-kick into the box and Eric headed it home to triple Barça’s lead and clinch the three points.
The final whistle came to end one of the craziest games of the La Liga season, one that Barça won with heart and some great attacking play. They are now just points off the top and the title race is as open as it can be, and the Catalans remain red-hot in 2025.
Well done, boys!
Sevilla: Nyland; Juanlu, Badé, Salas, Pedrosa (Marcão 87’); Gudelj (Agoumé 76’), Sow (Suso 63’); Lukébakio, Saúl (Bueno 76’), Vargas (Ejuke 63’); Romero
Goal: Vargas (8’)
Barcelona: Szczesny; Kounde, Araujo (Cubarsí 22’), Iñigo, Balde; De Jong (Eric 71’), Pedri; Yamal (Martín 89’), Gavi (Fermín 46’), Raphinha; Lewandowski (Olmo 71’)
Goals: Lewandowski (7’), Fermín (46’), Raphinha (55’), Eric (89’)
Red Card: Fermín (62’)
