La Liga Review: Sevilla FC 2, FC Barcelona 3, a.k.a. “A (stumbling) step towards the title”

How many matches did you follow yesterday? Me, I was watching the Sevilla-Barça on a stuttering stream (and our great LiveBlog), had the Villarreal-Valencia on my TV, the Real Madrid-Athletic on the radio (and my hysterical Twitter feed), and the Valladolid-Racing on a livescore. The LFP had everything happen at once on this momentous day so we’d have more reason to fear heart-attacks.

And damn if it wasn’t an exciting evening.

Yes, this kind of exciting.

The visit to the Sánchez Pizjuán was always going to be one of the toughest encounters we’d have to face this season, and it couldn’t come with worst timing (why, yes, it probably could, but bear with my rhetoric a minute, will you?): the second-to-last match of the season, with Real Madrid one point away, waiting to pounce on our potential slip-up, and facing a rival with a Champions League place to fight for.

And yet, for all the pressure mounting, Barça came out looking remarkably confident (confident, not cocky; there’s a difference). Pep rolled out what’s become the starting XI of the great occasions: Valdés, Alves, Piqué, Puyol, Maxwell, Busquets, Xavi, Keita, Messi, Pedro and Bojan; you might have noticed a marked absence of Ibrahimovic in this line-up, as well as Piqué’s presence, even though he had been in doubt just hours before the match.

Sevilla also came out with all their best uninjured players, which means, for Antonio Álvarez at least, Palop, Konko, Fazio, Escudé, Adriano, Navas, Renato, Zokora, Capel, Kanouté and Luis Fabiano.

As Pedro wisely pointed out in his preview of the match, the first fifteen minutes were going to be vital, and they proved indeed to be so, with a lovely Maxwell threaded run providing Messi with an opportunity to chip the ball above Palop and score the first of the night barely five minutes into the match.

Now, Barça has had a problem lately with falling asleep when they are ahead, and that was exactly what could have given Sevilla a chance to get into the match, but Pep must have swapped the team’s water for concentrated Turkish coffee, because they kept their heads up and their eyes open after their early goal. We had injury scares (Keita had a bad fall that compromised his right ankle, and Maxwell appeared to have a niggling pain in his right thigh that proved to be an actual tear in his femoral biceps), and Valdés had to make a couple of creditable saves, but the we controlled the match and most of the excitement came from the news of what was going on at the Bernabéu.

While we complained about the soft red Amorebieta had been shown at the Bernabéu, and the PK awarded to Real Madrid for his handball-that-maybe-was, Sevilla had to change Frazio for Squillaci after the poor sevillista did a number on his ankle trying to follow Leo Messi. And then, for all that Palop had been really good (as he usually is), a magical pass like only Xavi can make put Bojan in position to slip the ball into the Sevilla goal.

All this, and Pedrito too!

Worries? What worries? We were 0-2 ahead, Sevilla’s defence looked somewhat dispirited, and their only argument at times was to foul Messi, Xavi, Pedrito, and especially Busquets (who reaped two yellow cards from sevillistas this match, without playing peek-a-boo even once), while for once Leo Messi seem more concerned with scoring than with anything else (maybe his position, well within reach of the Pichichi, the Golden Boot, and Ronaldo’s goal-scoring record for Barça finally registered with him).

And then came glad news from Madrid, that Athletic had managed to score and get even, and if the evening continued its placid course, we could be mathematically champions of La Liga! Valdés contributed to this sense of peacefulness with a great save on Luis Fabiano (and then went a bit Lehmann on his defence) and just like that, we came to half-time in a wonderful situation.

Pep’s usual half-time motivational speech must have been good, but Álvarez’s must have been better, because Sevilla came onto the field with an obvious desire to turn the match around. Alas, their enthusiasm was curbed by Konko soon being showed his second yellow of the night and marching off to have an early shower, but even in that situation, Palop and Messi’s unusual nerves conspired to keep the situation even until our little match-changing wonder came through.

Pedrito scored a lovely goal, after Palop and the post saved a Messi shot, and with a score of 0-3 and less than half-an-hour to go, how many of you had the temptation to tune into the exciting draw at the Bernabéu to support Athletic?

Meep-meep!

Barça must have thought the same, or perhaps Pep’s Turkish coffee was decaf, because they yawned, stretched, and took the foot off the accelerator. Bojan missed something that not even Ibra would have missed (because he would have been offsides), giving Laporta the opportunity to look ridiculous in the presidential seats, and then…

And then we realised that Sevilla might be three goals down and playing with ten men, but they were at home and they weren’t stupid.

The first goal was a lovely sevillista deep pass that had the bad taste to happen at the same time that Carles Puyol had a Rafa-Márquez moment and slipped at the absolutely worst possible moment, to allow Kanouté to shoot cleanly past Valdés.

And not two minutes later, we had a taste of our medicine. For a team that often likes to play the trick of the fast FK, we were totally played by one. Did we think we were the only ones who had that trick up our sleeves? This time, Luis Fabiano strolled into Valdés’ presence while Xavi and the rest gawked at his cheek, and scored the second.

Aw-kward.

We had gone from an overwhelming advantage and total control to a fragile one-goal lead and lots of looking at our watches. And then Real Madrid, inspired by our difficulties, started scoring: once, twice, three times, and up to a grand total of four goals in less than half-an-hour, while our own attack grew increasingly nervous and inaccurate, and Sevilla kept throwing themselves forwards, with a one-point price (or more) in sight. And Valladolid, who were losing and getting relegated (ready to come to the Camp Nou like lambs to the slaughter) had the cheek to move onto win their match, meaning that they’ll be fighting against relegation on our meeting!

Pep started to make his usual last-minute subs. Yaya came in for Xavi. Our attack was completely muddled. Jeffren came in for Bojan, who tried to waste time by looking for the referee to shake his hand goodbye. In stoppage time, Kanouté was just offsides. Valdés tried to waste time too, and got a yellow for his trouble. Many fingernails were chewed and finally, FINALLY the match was over and the three points were in the bag.

Exciting, yes. That’s one way to put it.

It was a good match by Barça, right up until the time they decided they had done enough for the evening and let Sevilla catch up. It isn’t the first time this happens to us, and several times it has made us flirt with disaster (or downright let disaster take us home to show us his stamp collection). We were spared this time, probably because the Gods of Football demand another nerve-wracking evening next weekend, but it’s something that Pep is really going to have to work on if we are to keep being the best.

The best do not sleep, see?

Let’s have some ratings so you can tell me how inaccurate they are, shall we? (from 0 to 10)

Valdés: 7,5. He had a couple of fine saves, and although he might have been able to do a bit more on the first Sevilla goal, he wasn’t really at fault for either of them.

Alves: 7,5. Playing against his former team, Dani was one fire, running up and down, and giving crosses (more or less accurate).

Piqué: 7,5. Good, solid defending for the most part; he wasn’t as adventurous going forwards as he usually is, maybe because he wasn’t fully fit or because he didn’t trust the Sevilla forwards, but he could have at least moved for the second Sevilla goal.

Puyol: 7. Hey, everyone slips sometimes; it wasn’t our captain’s fault that it happened to him with terribly Rafa-Márquez timing. Other than that, he was good, almost providential at times.

Maxwell: 8. His defending is nowhere as good as Abidal’s yet, but it wasn’t too shabby either, and he gave a lovely assist to Messi; unfortunately he got injured (hopefully it’s not serious), and also got an unfair yellow that means he won’t be able to play next weekend.

Xavi: 8. A gorgeous, *gorgeous* assist to Bojan, great presence of mind to keep the midfield under control, and a yellow that also means he won’t play the next match.

Busquets: 7,5. He got two sevillistas carded, also got a card for himself, but did a good enough job of helping Xavi keep control of the midfield in the free time he had left from his foul-hunting.

Keita: 7. Hard-working, steady, and something good might have come from his run at goal if he hadn’t twisted his ankle just then; it’s very easy to underrate him, but he really does give another (quieter) dimension to our game.

Messi: 7,5. His goal was lovely, but he seemed nervous, or too determined to score again, and it made him miss things he usually wouldn’t miss, and be less cooperative than he usually is; his goal means that unless Higuaín scores five goals for RM next weekend, though, he will at least be Pichichi of La Liga.

Pedrito: 8,5 (MOTM). A great goal, true, but I particularly liked the selflessness that our young Roadrunner shows whenever it’s time to track back and defend; he got a yellow for stopping a deadly Capel counterattack, and it does him credit.

Bojan: 7,5. He can be very good (his goal was great) and then quite bad (his sitter during the second half was awful); he is growing and maturing and damn it, I never thought I would say this, but I hope Pep keeps him in the starting XI.

Abidal (67’): 8. Finally he’s back, and at the best possible moment, since Maxwell will be unavailable for the next match and Puyol doesn’t really have the speed to replace him anymore; he got playing time and looked fearsome in defence, as usual.

Yaya (86’): he played less than ten minutes, but he played them well and helped to calm the midfield in that last frantic moments.

Jeffren (91): I don’t know if he even touched the ball, but at that moment in time, there was little he could do, one way or the other.

“We haven’t won this yet,” warned Pep just after the match. “I’ll make sure the team doesn’t think they are champions just yet. The match against Valladolid is going to be immense.”

So, after this rollercoaster of football, we go into this last week of La Liga at the top of the table, with a one-point advantage over Real Madrid, and looking forwards to the match against Valladolid. This title is ours, to win or to lose, and this match demonstrated that we can do either, depending on how the mood strikes us. Let’s hope we are in a winning mood next weekend!

And, to put this into perspective and remind ourselves of why we follow this club, here, have this great Nike ad. Keep your eyes peeled, because in a matter of years we’ll be celebrating the titles that some of those children will bring us!

“Don’t think about the season. Think about history.”

Visca el Barça!!!

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Category: Barcelona, La Liga, Players, Review, State of the Liga, Team News