Few Barcelona fans would’ve wished for a better outcome of their team’s La Liga match against Sevilla than Sergio Ramos, the man who captained Real Madrid and wore the Los Blancos shirt on 671 occasions in all competitions, handing them a victory with an own-goal.
That’s exactly what happened on Friday evening at Barcelona’s temporary home of Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys.
Sergio Ramos
The 37-year-old defender is a player who simply does not leave spectators indifferent. You either love him, or you hate him, and there are plenty of reasons and perfectly valid argument for both sides.
Even those who despise Ramos and believe the game would’ve been better off had he never played it, cannot dispute his immense quality on the pitch. He’s a real leader, a warrior in the back line, a menace in the opposition box, a defender who has scored 110 goals and has been sent off on 28 occasions. A top player who doesn’t shy away from playing dirty, even injuring opponents deliberately if need be. A personification of the expression, “anything to win”.
Ramos is now back at Sevilla, the club he left back in 2005, and his presence in the defensive ranks of Jose Mendilibar’s team has improved their stability significantly. In August, the Europa League holders conceded eight goals in three La Liga matches, and their first clean sheet of the season came against Las Palmas at home on September 17th – the first with Ramos back in their ranks. Since then, Sevilla have not conceded more than once in a game.
And that probably makes the manner of this defeat, that hero putting the ball into his own net with just 15 minutes left on the clock, even more difficult for the Sevilla faithful to take. It was a surprisingly clumsy move from Ramos as Barcelona substitute Ferran Torres whipped a diagonal pass from left to right for Lamine Yamal to chase, and the young winger headed it back towards the middle of the box. Ramos ran onto the ball, failed to sort his feet out, and directed it past the helpless Oryan Nyland in the Sevilla goal.
He’s had plenty of notable moments playing against Barcelona in his long career, both good and bad. This one certainly falls into the group of those he’ll want to forget.
The game
Barcelona expectedly started the game as the dominant team, building their possession-based game and pushing the opposition back. With the ball at their feet for 59% of the time, they took a total of 18 shots, four that forced Nyland to make a save.
On the other hand, Sevilla played far more directly, with attackers Lucas Ocampos and Dodi Lukebakio frequently making runs out wide whenever their teammates got hold of the ball, and in this way they threatened Barcelona shot-stopper Marc-Andre ter Stegen quite a lot. Their number of shots stopped at 12, three on target. Corners were the category that showed Barcelona’s domination most clearly; 13-3.
With Yamal’s breakthrough to reckon with while fighting for the right-wing spot in Xavi’s team, Raphinha has dropped into midfield and has adapted to the change quite nicely. It wasn’t easy, dealing with Ivan Rakitic, a former Barcelona star himself, helped by Djibril Sow and Joan Jordan, but the Brazilian did very well. At his side, there was some good balance in the presence of the vast experience of Ilkay Gundogan and the youth, talent and work-rate of Gavi. While Gundogan displayed his famous composure by keeping the ball under pressure and picking out good options to pass, Gavi moved from back to front with ease and contributed both defensively and offensively in fine measure.
The three Barcelona midfielders frequently entered the opposition box to provide extra danger for Sevilla’s defence, but on one such occasion in the 37th minute, Raphinha missed the target and ended up on the ground, clutching his hamstring.
The injury forced Xavi to make his first substitution of the game earlier than he’d have planned, introducing young 20-year-old Fermin Lopez into the fray.
Raphinha’s injury will be the most worrying consequence of this game for Barcelona, but the three points given to them by Ramos in this game have put them at the top of the La Liga table, at least for a day, with second-place Girona hosting third-place Real Madrid on Saturday.
Looking ahead
For Barcelona, it’s a trip to Portugal to face FC Porto in the Champions League next, where they’ll be looking to build on their 5-0 thrashing of Antwerp in the opening round. After that, they resume their La Liga campaign with a trip to Granada.
As for Sevilla, they’ll be facing PSV in Eindhoven next, with the aim of doing better than in their disappointing opener, which they drew 1-1 at home against Lens. On Saturday next, they play at home against Rayo Vallecano, and their need for a good result in that game has become pressing.
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