After the first 45 minutes, Xavi will have had flashbacks of the tiki-taka passing of the old Barcelona, with his own midfield presence pulling the strings. Except on Sunday against Sevilla, one thing was missing: the end product.
So, at halftime, Xavi made a tactical change, swallowing his pride and asking his players to be more incisive by blasting the ball into the penalty area rather than passing it through a packed-in opponent. It worked to perfection, and Barcelona ran away with the second half, victorious via a 3-0 scoreline to shed Sevilla with ease and move eight points clear at the top of the La Liga table.
Real Madrid’s slip earlier in the day provided the opening, and Barcelona capitalised on the situation as they move even further ahead in the Spanish league title race.
An under-fire Raphinha and spot-starter Jordi Alba were the two most influential players after the break, each picking up a goal and assist to spark the win. Barcelona will be sweating the fitness of veteran Sergio Busquets, who went down with a nasty ankle turn just five minutes into the match, but replacement Franck Kessie picked up a great assist on Alba’s opening goal, and was able to replace the fallen captain well.
Sevilla provided almost no resistance across the 90 minutes, dominated from start to finish on possession. They were able to frustrate the hosts through the first half, but after the break couldn’t deal with the repeated crosses and diagonal balls into their penalty area. At one point, Jorge Sampaoli threw Ivan Rakitic up front as a False 9, a perfect encapsulation of their desperation to find an attacking solution, but there ultimately was none.
The Sporting News will be following the match live and providing score updates, commentary and highlights as they happen.
Barcelona vs Sevilla final score
1H 2H Final
Barcelona 0 3 3
Sevilla 0 0 0
Goals:
58th min — BAR — Jordi Alba
71st min — BAR — Gavi
79th min — BAR — Raphinha
Confirmed lineups:
Barcelona (4-4-2, 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 (Fati, 80′) — 22. Raphinha (Torres, 84′), 9. Lewandowski.
Sevilla (5-4-1, right to left): 13. Bounou (GK) — 2. Montiel, 22. Bade, 6. Grudelj, 4. Rekik, 19. M. Acuna (Ocampos, 65′) — 21. O. Torres (Lamela, 46′), 8. Jordan, 10. Rakitic, 18. P. Gueye (Fernando, 83′) — 15. En-Nesyri (Gil, 46′).
Barcelona vs Sevilla live updates, highlights, commentary
FULLTIME: Barcelona 3-0 Sevilla
Xavi’s halftime tactical tweak worked to perfection, as Barcelona stopped trying to pass their way through the packed-in Sevilla defensive unit and instead bypassed it with crosses and diagonal balls. The second half was just what the head man ordered, and Barcelona successfully go eight points adrift at the top of the table.
Raphinha, after another putrid first 45 minutes, ended up as Man of the Match getting a goal and an assist and providing plenty of danger by running at defenders and making far-post runs to latch onto diagonal balls from midfield.
Barcelona vs Sevilla: Second half
90+2 min: Robert Lewandowski is desperate to join the goalscoring party, and managed to find an opening for a shot left of the penalty spot, but he fired it right at Yassine Bounou who makes the save.
88th min: Marc-Andre ter Stegen is finally called into action for the first time all match, easily collecting a Lucas Ocampos header that’s straight into his chest. He’s had almost nothing to do all match.
83rd min: Jordi Alba and Raphinha are both withdrawn to bring on Ferran Torres and Alex Balde, and the Camp Nou crowd gives them a huge applause. Sevilla also make a swap, with Pape Gueye yanked in favor of Fernando.
79th min: GOAL! BARCELONA! Raphinha gets his goal, and Jordi Alba gets the assist, as both are providing key moments in this second half! It’s a classic goal, with Sevilla unable to prevent the pace of Alba down the left, feeding a perfect cross to Raphinha crashing the goal mouth and hammering it in. That’s a bad goal to concede, with Sevilla undone in the simplest of ways.
Note: This article is taken from sportingnews.com