Barcelona drew 2-2 against Sevilla at the Sanchez Pizjuan in Matchday 31 of La Liga. Lionel Messi and Neymar scored the goals for the Blaugrana, who enjoyed 65 percent of possession, created 17 goalscoring chances and attempted 12 shots, seven of them on target.
Barcelona dominated the first half, achieving a comfortable 0-2 advantage after just 31 minutes. From that point on, most would have thought that Luis Enrique’s men were going to impose their theoretical superiority to bring the victory home.
Nothing further from the truth.
Claudio Bravo’s clumsy mistake allowed Sevilla to score their first before halftime, bringing the hosts back into contention. With the overwhelming support from their local fans, Unai Emery’s side ended up equalising the game less than ten minutes away from the final whistle — following a terrible pass across midfield by Gerard Pique.
While Luis Enrique would have been fairly pleased with walking away from the Sanchez Pizjuan with one point given the hosts’ momentum of late before the game, it is clear that the final result can only be considered a disappointment given the commanding lead Barcelona were able to build initially.
Although the initial reaction is that the Blaugranas should have walked away with a better result, the undeniable truth is that Barcelona are still leading the competition with only seven matches still to be played for. Having said that, there is no room further slip-ups as Real Madrid are now only two points behind.
Upwards and onwards, Cules!
Player Ratings (1-10; 10=best. Players introduced after 70 minutes get no rating):
GK Claudio Bravo, 4
DF Dani Alves, 5
DF Jeremy Mathieu, 6
DF Gerard Pique, 5
DF Jordi Alba, 6
MF Sergio Busquets, 5
MF Andres Iniesta, 5
MF Ivan Rakitic, 6
FW Neymar Jr, 7 — Man of the Match
FW Luis Suarez, 5
FW Lionel Messi, 6
Substitutes:
MF Xavi, 6
FW Pedro n/a
