Sevilla vs. Barcelona: Winners and Losers from La Liga Game
A fantastic match in La Liga on Saturday ended with Sevilla holding on to defeat Barcelona by a 2-1 scoreline.
The breathless first half didn't see any goals but had chances aplenty at both ends—including a Neymar free-kick that hit the post twice and rolled along the line without going in.
After the interval, Michael Krohn-Dehli scored and then set up Vicente Iborra as Sevilla made their own offensive threat count first, before Neymar scored a softly given penalty to set up a big finish to the game.
Here are all our winners and losers from the match at the Sanchez Pizjuan stadium, Spain.
Winner: Sergi Roberto
1 of 5
Continuing to impress and grow into an important part of the Barcelona side is Sergi Roberto. He was picked ahead of Dani Alves at right-back on merit for the match—denying the Brazilian a start against his former side—and he impressed throughout the game both in that position and, later on, in central midfield.
Sergi defended well against the dual-threat of Benoit Tremoulinas overlapping Michael Krohn-Dehli, while also keeping Kevin Gameiro at bay when the striker pulled into the channel. Going forward, he was a good outlet for Barcelona and certainly the more progressive of their two full-backs.
Later, in midfield, Sevilla had already backed off to defend their lead, and he used the space in deep areas to keep moving possession about quickly and intelligently.
Losers: Jordi Alba and Jeremy Mathieu
2 of 5
In fairness, not too many in the Barcelona defence could claim huge credit over the course of the season so far—but the left channel against Sevilla was particularly porous and weak in possession.
Jordi Alba was clearly well below his best in terms of helping attacks and opening the game down the flank, overrunning the ball and misplacing passes while also not doing a particularly good job defensively in keeping tight to Vitolo and stopping crosses coming in.
Alongside him, Jeremy Mathieu made a couple of good interventions early on but lost his way after the break, not winning headers and losing out in one-on-one battles in the build-up for both goals.
Per Infostrada Sports on Twitter, this was the first time Barcelona have lost consecutive Liga games in more than 18 months. The defence, not the lack of attack, had much to do with this defeat.
Winner: Sergio Rico
3 of 5
This performance should be the death knell of Beto's career as Sevilla's No. 1.
In truth, it was disappointing that Unai Emery even reverted to the experienced man for the start of the season after Rico was excellent at the end of last term, helping to win the Europa League, but an injury to Beto has put the Spanish youngster back in goal now regardless.
He was simply excellent against Barcelona, in particular thwarting Neymar on many occasions, and he even had luck on his side when a free-kick struck the post, the goalkeeper's back and then the post once again—before rolling along the line and out.
Now Spain's third-choice stopper, Rico has shown the capacity to star against top opposition, and he should very much remain in place for the Andalucian club now.
Loser: Munir El Haddadi
4 of 5
With so many injury absences, Barcelona have no option but to put in one of the two younger forwards almost every match at the moment, or else move away from the three-forwards formations that are the hallmark of Barcelona teams.
At present, though, whichever player out of Munir and Sandro Ramirez gets the nod to start simply isn't having an impact during the largest portions of the game, invariably being subbed for the other in hope rather than expectation that they might make something happen.
Munir was quiet in attack, defensively not a great help and missed his one shooting opportunity with a very poor volley over the bar in the first half.
Winner: Michael Krohn-Dehli
5 of 5
Danish midfielder Michael Krohn-Dehli was superb throughout, a great build-up link player and excellent in taking the game to Barcelona. He pressed high and passed with invention and intent.
The second half was reward for his enterprising play and willingness to get so far forward; with the defence dragged over to cover for the weak left flank being exploited, Krohn-Dehli was left unmarked to tap home the opening goal of the game—but it was his pure talent that executed the assist for the second soon after.
Hard work, great passing range and set-piece delivery that was on point all game long made Krohn-Dehli the standout player of the 90 minutes.
