Sergio Ramos, a legendary player for Real Madrid, scored an unlucky own goal on Friday, which was enough to give Barcelona a slim victory over Sevilla.
With Girona and Real Madrid scheduled to play each other on Saturday, the victory allows Barcelona to overtake them and take the top spot in La Liga.
Barcelona’s aggressive lineup, which included Gavi, Ilkay Gundogan, and Raphinha (yes, that Raphinha) in the middle of the field, nearly yielded results early on when surprise central midfielder Raphinha played a precise pass into the feet of Joao Felix on the left side of the penalty area. After dominating possession of the ball, Felix watched Orjan Nyland in the Sevilla goal stop a well-aimed attempt.
While Raphinha was demonstrating his effectiveness in the final third, the Brazilian was obviously less at ease in the defensive third. On the quarter-hour mark, Raphinha’s errant pass in the defensive third nearly lost his team the game. Ivan Rakitic, an ex-Barca player, launched a goal-bound shot from 20 yards out, but Marc-Andre ter Stegen made a fine save.
Barca was the next team to have a chance to take the lead through Felix in the 21st minute. The loanee was superbly set up by a skillful through pass from fellow loanee Joao Cancelo, but his subsequent shot on goal, with just the goalie to beat, hit the crossbar.
The remainder of the first half saw more back-and-forth play, with Dodi Lubebakio forcing Ter Stegen to make a deft save at his near post at one end of the hour and Raphinha seeing Nyland in goal receive a volleyed effort from inside.
Raphinha’s volley would turn out to be his final play of the match, as he was promptly replaced in the 35th minute owing to a suspected muscular injury.
After a very evenly matched first half, Barca began to have the upper hand in the second. The home team began to find more and more opportunities to include their star striker Robert Lewandowski in the action, and in the 55th minute, Juanlu Sanchez made a spectacular last-ditch block to prevent the striker from scoring.
Despite having a lot of the ball, the home team often struggled to get Nyland to make any noteworthy saves, and they nearly paid for it in the 73rd minute. Rakitic had the chance to give Sevilla the lead as he sprinted to the near post to get his head on a beautiful cross from Erik Lamela, but the Croatian striker was just unable to keep his effort on goal.
Rakitic’s missed opportunity served as Barcelona’s wake-up call, and just two minutes later, they went up the other end and took the lead.
When Lamine Yamal headed the ball across goal, Real Madrid legend Sergio Ramos was simply in the wrong place at the wrong moment, causing the ball to ricochet off his knee and into his own net.
Ramos had been playing brilliantly up until that point, so it was a very unfortunate situation.
Marc-Andre ter Stegen, a goalkeeper for Barcelona, received a score of 6 out of 10 for his first-half performance.
RB: Joao Cancelo earned a 7/10 and was at times Barca’s dangerous man in the first half. Involved less in the second, but consistently displayed strong defense.
CB Jules Kounde scored a 7/10. Late in the game, he made a fantastic recovery clearance. He is currently among the finest.
CB: 6/10 Andreas Christensen The former Chelsea player had a good performance.
Alejandro Balde, LB, scored 6/10. particularly early in the game, got forward well.
CM: Raphinha (6/10): Spent 35 minutes in a new position and had his moments before being substituted off due to an injury.
CM: Gavi, 8/10: The midfielder was essentially non-stop on the television for the whole game. An active and powerful performance.
Ilkay Gundogan scored a 6/10. Tidy is playing a deeper role than he usually does.
RW: 7/10 for Lamine Yamal His talent is absurd. shown such potential intermittently throughout, finally helping Barca score the game-winning goal.
Robert Lewandowski scored a 6/10. At the beginning of the second half, we had a few sighters but eventually failed to score on Friday night.
LW: Joao Felix received a 5/10. blew the finest opportunity of the opening period when one-on-one with Nyland, hitting the crossbar.
Fermin Lopez came on in place of Raphinha at the 35-second mark, and he gave Barcelona a great spark in the middle of the park. He virtually nutmegged the entire Sevilla team twice.
SUB: Ferran Torres (71′ for Felix) – 6/10 – Ramos’ own goal was preceded by his excellent cross-field pass.
(83′ for Yamal) SUB: Oriol Romeu – N/A.
Marcos Alonso, Ronald Araujo, Sergi Roberto, Ander Astralaga, and Inaki Pena are the substitutes who weren’t used.
6/10 for manager Xavi Hernandez. A real midfielder (Fermin Lopez) was substituted for the injured Raphinha, which gave Xavi’s unusual midfield trio a much more assured appearance.
