“It has been a day of bad luck for us”. A phrase, from the mouth of Nemanja Gudelj, that has perfectly summed up a night that Sevilla has already experienced too many times. A competition, LaLiga, a rival, Barcelona, and one condition, visitor. All these factors always lead to the same result for 22 years: defeat. However, this time the toll of a trip with a poisoned ticket.
In Montjuic, Sevilla lost, above all, an indispensable player who, if the first scans are confirmed, will be away from the playing fields for a significant amount of time: Chidera Ejuke. The fashionable footballer in Nervión, the top dribbler in LaLiga, suffered a puncture on the edge of half-time that could result in a break. All at the expense of medical evidence. This was even more painful for the people of Nervion than the resounding result. (5-1). García Pimienta, yes, showed his anger with the performance of his team in the press room: “It cannot be that a team disappears after 25 minutes because they score a goal”.
“The game was very good until the penalty play. Until that moment, I think that was the approach we had. We have gone on the counterattack a couple of times with a lot of danger… and in an incomprehensible way there is one action, the penalty, and it was 1-0. But the whole game remains ahead. If you do not defend in a concentrated way, if you are not attentive, if you do not have the help in the defensive profile with a team like Barcelona, then what happened today could happen,” he continued.
Everything happened to Sevilla in the game. The controversy fell in favor of Barcelona… and the injuries ended up killing him. All without, as García Pimienta has said, forgetting the raw disconnection of Nervion. The Barcelona coach also accused the lack of success in “the timing of the pass”, in reference to the goal and penalty disallowed due to an illegal position by his team, but he stopped to analyze the first goal of the culés.
It came from eleven meters, after a penalty on Raphinha… which triggered protests from Sevilla. “Sometimes there needs to be more contact to call a penalty. He whistled it and the VAR has not corrected it,” he commented before emphasizing again that this does not justify the fall of his team after the first goal against. Regarding the injuries, he was clear and concise: “Ejuke sure has an injuryhas noticed a puncture in his ischium. Suso already knows himself a little better, and he only has annoyances in the abductor, it seems that it will be nothing. And Pedrosa, in principle, should be the typical cramp.”
In short, a trip – to the annual defeat against Barcelona – with a toll that is too expensive for Sevilla. He will lose Ejuke and Suso – the Nigerian thing does seem serious – for a carousel of important games. Just when his best version was beginning to shine.
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Francisco Javier García Pimienta
