This article was first published on footballromance.com (a predecessor to this website) in November 2016.
Line-ups
Samir Nasri had looked likely to miss out due to injury during the week, but he was ultimately deemed fit to play and replaced Mathias Kranevitter in a midfield anchored by Steven N’Zonzi. Daniel Carriço was somewhat surprisingly drafted back into the team in central defence, with Gabriel Mercado making way.
With Luis Enrique still searching for the best replacement for injured skipper Andres Iniesta, Denis Suarez took over in midfield from Andre Gomes. There were no other changes to the team which lost to Manchester City in midweek.
Sevilla pushing high in lightning start
A lightning start to the contest saw three efforts on goal inside the first 100 seconds; the hosts managed two of them, but the best fell to Luis Suarez after a classic piece of MSN link-up play.
It was almost as if there were two separate matches taking place at either end of the field inside the first 15 minutes, with Sevilla willing to task huge risks at the back against their opponents’ famed attacking trident.
Jorge Sampaoli’s side learned their lesson from that early Suarez chance, which came from a swift counter-attack instigated by Neymar, who had received a pass from deep into feet and was allowed to turn. From that moment on, Los Rojiblancos expended vast amounts of energy in pushing high up the field and prevented Barça from playing out from the back, a strategy which the visitors tried to ignore but ultimately found extremely difficult to cope with.
Marc-Andre ter Stegen repeatedly attempted to play goal kicks short to his central defenders – at one stage both Javier Mascherano and Samuel Umtiti positioned themselves on the goal-line – which did nothing other than invite pressure. Mascherano and Umtiti were then often forced to play the ball long anyway and were unable to supply quality service to Suarez, who managed only 16 touches in the whole of the first half.
The hosts’ danger down the left
Sergio Escudero’s adventure epitomised his team’s early play; the left-back overlapped Vitolo with regularity and on several occasions found himself to be Sevilla’s furthest forward player. Escudero was aided by the fact that he was never really up against a direct opponent – Messi did most of his work centrally, Ivan Rakitic struggled to get forward with the hosts winning the midfield battle and Sergi Roberto’s attacking instincts were also curbed by Barça’s struggles.
Roberto endured a difficult first half, both in attack and in defence. Mascherano was the only Barça player to attempt more passes in the opening period, but Roberto was often left isolated on the right flank and had few passing options ahead of him. As a result, the Spanish international’s attacking impact was very limited, although it was at the other end of the field where his main issues lay.
The pace and hard running of Escudero and Vitolo proved too much for Roberto and Rakitic to handle, so it was little surprise that the game’s opening goal came down that side of the field. Vitolo had burst through on goal just seconds earlier and it was he who ultimately ran beyond Roberto to score, although the Barça full-back looked to have been in a good position to cut out Pablo Sarabia’s through-ball.
Barça overrun (for once) in midfield
The goal also came as a result of Sevilla’s ability to get on the ball in central areas in opposition territory, with Sergio Busquets unable to shield his defence as effectively as usual. The busy trio of Franco Vazquez, Samir Nasri and Steven N’Zonzi formed a triangle around Busquets, offered little defensive support by Rakitic and Denis Suarez, which enabled them to enjoy plenty of possession in dangerous parts of the pitch.
Not only was N’Zonzi a key factor in helping his team impose themselves in the Barcelona half, he somewhat ‘out-Busquetsed’ Busquets for much of the first half, always making himself available, along with Nasri, to receive a pass and providing a shield in front of central defenders Adil Rami and Carriço.
Sevilla drop off slightly, Messi drops deeper
After taking the lead, Sevilla continued to press high but, having used up a lot of energy, were also forced to drop off at times, which tested their defensive concentration. For the most part, they were up to the task, shutting off passes in central areas and forcing Barça wide, from where the Catalans looked to play back infield and into considerable traffic.
As ever, Messi was their trump card. Frustrated by his inability to affect the game, the Argentinian began to drop deeper and deeper as the half wore on, although, like the rest of his teammates, he initially struggled to play his way through the middle (no player lost possession on more occasions – four – in the first period).
But in the final 10 minutes, he finally had some joy with a series of late breaks forward which caught the home midfield unawares. A last-ditch N’Zonzi clearance thwarted him once, but a careless loss of possession from the hosts led to an undeserved equaliser; with N’Zonzi covering right-back Mariano’s break upfield, Messi curled in from an area in which the Frenchman would normally have been stationed.
Sampaoli stated after the game that the leveller had been “emotionally decisive” and there could be no arguing that the complexion of the match changed in the second half. Sevilla had been close to their best, while Barça hadn’t got out of first gear. Yet, they were level. What had Luis Enrique said to his players at the break? Simply reminded them of how good they (normally) are?
Los Azulgranas relieve the pressure
Ter Stegen ditching his risky goal-kick approach certainly helped; it may seem a small detail, but Mascherano and Umtiti very rarely found themselves under the same pressure they had faced in the opening 45 minutes and the whole team was able to push further up the pitch. Busquets, for instance, played only four passes in the opposition half in the first period but 19 in the second.
This helped Denis Suarez, who started the second period very impressively, and Rakitic get on the ball rather than worry about who might be running in behind them, which, in turn, ensured the passes played into the front three were shorter, slicker, of better quality and easier for them to gauge in terms of making angles to receive the ball.
More Messi magic
Whether it is indeed correct to call Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar a ‘front three’ must be up for debate, with the former’s tendency to drop into midfield an increasingly prominent feature of his game. As mentioned earlier, Messi had some joy doing this towards the end of the first half, but in the second, he was everywhere.
Only Mascherano (45) had more touches in the second half than Messi (42), who combined jinking dribbles, incisive through-balls and efforts on goal with shutting down opponents and winning the ball back – it was a near-faultless display. There were moments in which the Argentinian – along with Luis Suarez and, to a slightly lesser extent, Neymar – did as he pleased and there was little the hosts, bar Sergio Rico, could do to prevent him.
Hope but no legs for Sevilla
Only Luis Suarez was able to find a way past the Sevilla goalkeeper after half time, which meant there was hope for Sampaoli’s side right until the end. But, having used up so much energy in the opening half-an-hour, there wasn’t enough left in the tank to press with the same intensity and the latter part of the half in particular was littered with misplaced passes, careless losses of possession (e.g. Carriço at the second goal) and a haphazard midfield, with N’Zonzi left with too much defensive work to do on his own.
The ball was very much in Barcelona’s in control, so Escudero and Vitolo were much less active in attack, although the latter did manage to get to the goal-line on a couple of occasions. With the visiting defence pushed up higher than it had been in the first half, Luciano Vietto’s runs into the channels offered moments of promise, but they led to only one real opportunity to score – an excellent one admittedly – for Nasri and that came in the 47th-minute.
N’Zonzi came inches away from heading into the net after ter Stegen had flapped at a corner, but the vast majority of the goalmouth action came at the other end; Barça’s 10 second-half efforts were considerably more clear-cut than the seven mustered by the home side.
What next?
Sevilla produced a pulsating display in the first period and their high-tempo, in-your-face approach had the reigning champions seriously on the ropes. But Messi’s leveller before half time took the wind out of their sails and a second wind never arrived. Could Sampaoli’s men ever reproduce their first-half performance over 90 minutes against the very best? It seems rather far-fetched.
Barcelona have performed excellently in two of the last four halves of football they have played, but in the other two they haven’t got anywhere near that level, which will be a considerable source of frustration for Enrique. Losing a player of Iniesta’s brilliance is an undoubted disruption, although Denis Suarez’s second-half showing will give him hope that he can plug the gap in the meantime.
As for Messi, there’s really not much left to say, is there?