These are certainly good times for Barcelona. While their eternal rivals Real Madrid flounder from one crisis to another, the Catalan giants are through to the Copa del Rey final, effectively into the Champions League last eight and hold a strong advantage at the top of La Liga.
And even when their sensational strike force can’t manage to conjure a winning goal, someone else appears to do the job for them.
On this occasion the hero was centre-back Gerard Pique, who stepped up from his defensive duties to prod home the matchwinner after Lionel Messi’s sumptuous free-kick had cancelled out Vitolo’s opener for Sevilla.
It was a tough, competitive game against an impressive Sevilla team who were the last opponent to succeed in beating Barca, way back on October 3, but the hard-earned points send the Blaugrana a big step closer to regaining the title.
From the start, Sevilla sat deep in defence but looked to counter rapidly whenever possible and they threatened early by winning a pair of corners, the second of which dropped loose for French defender Timothee Kolodziejczak to blaze over.
With Kevin Gameiro’s movement causing problems for Barca, the visitors had another half-chance when Vitolo’s volley from the edge of the box was too close to Claudio Bravo.
In an entertaining affair, Barca were also looking menacing and were unfortunate not to go ahead when they hit the post twice in three seconds, firstly as Messi’s near-post corner was deflected onto the post by Coke and then as Luis Suarez thumped the rebound against the crossbar.
Considering the threat they were regularly posing, it was no great surprise when Sevilla went ahead. A swift break down the left resulted in Benoit Tremoulinas crossing precisely to the far post, where Vitolo was left unmarked to convert a cushioned first-time volley.
Barca’s initial attempts to respond were repelled by the wellorganised visitors, but that changed after half an hour when Suarez turned onto a backheel from Neymar and was brought down on the edge of the box, allowing Messi to whip a sublime free-kick perfectly into the top right corner.
It was all Messi for the remainder of the first half, with the Argentine seeing one snapshot well saved by Sergio Rico, having another effort deflected behind and a darting run only thwarted by Coke’s last-ditch challenge.
The second half started with Rico parrying Neymar’s volley from Sergi Roberto’s deep cross, but the resulting corner saw Barca take the lead as Messi found Suarez and his cross-shot was touched home from close range by Pique.
Sevilla could have quickly equalised when a wonderful flick from Vicente Iborra released Gameiro, but the French striker shot too close to Bravo.
Then Neymar combined sharply with Messi to force a great reflex save from Rico, who soon had to make another fine stop to deny a rare effort on goal from Sergio Busquets.
With Sevilla by no means out of it more goals were always looking likely, and Roberto’s header was inadvertently blocked by Suarez before the Uruguayan striker lost his footing at the crucial moment as he ran onto a loose ball in the box.
The determined visitors caused a few panicky moments in Barca’s defence without creating anything clear cut, and the hosts survived late pressure including a pair of injury time corners to seal the points.
