In front of an expectant Estadio Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán crowd, Sevilla flew out of the traps and had Barcelona on the ropes in the opening stages. Ivan Rakitić forced a smart stop out of Marc-André ter Stegen before Érik Lamela had the ball in the net, only for the assistant’s flag to cut-short his joy. While the opening stages perhaps didn’t quite go their way, an ominous trio of Ousmane Dembélé, Robert Lewandowski and Raphinha meant Barcelona always had a chance of hitting the front.
That they did as all three combined for Barca’s opener - Dembélé feeding Lewandowski, whose effort was cleared off the line by Fernando but only as far as Raphinha who nodded home from a matter of yards. He might’ve been denied earlier, but Lewandowski did eventually get his goal when Jules Koundé found him in oceans of space and the Polish frontman cushioned the ball down with his chest before rifling home to double Barca’s advantage.
One Koundé assist was unlikely, but two was seemingly beyond the realms of possibility, although the French defender lived to prove everyone wrong. Raphinha’s deep cross was kept alive by Koundé and another of Barca’s defensive stalwarts Eric García was on hand to tap home from inside the six-yard box. Lamela was one bright spark for Sevilla, but as the hosts went in search of a consolation goal, the Argentine winger was denied by a smart Ter Stegen stop.
Since 2007/08, Sevilla have only beaten Barcelona once, so perhaps this result was to be expected, and you could argue 3-0 flattered Sevilla a little, with Frenkie de Jong twice coming tantalisingly close to adding a fourth for the Catalan giants. The scoreline won’t matter too much to Barca though, it’s all about keeping pace with Real Madrid, with La Liga already shaping up towards an El Clásico shootout for the title.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Jules Koundé (Barcelona)
