Seville, Feb 27 (EFE) .- A goal from Frenchman Ousmane Dembélé and another from Argentine Leo Messi re-engaged Barcelona in the LaLiga title fight by winning 0-2 against an unknown and harmless Sevilla in attack, which made it easier for him much things to his rival.
Dembélé, with a goal at the edge of the first half hour, advanced to Barcelona after a first half with very few occasions and in which the Catalans were superior to a disappeared Sevilla, very conservative, and in the second the script was even more favorable to the culés, that sentenced to 5 of the end with the 0-2 of Messi.
In a crucial appointment to get into the fight for the League title, as a prelude to the return on Wednesday of the Cup semifinals – with 2-0 income for the Whites – in the first of his double duel in five days, Ronald Koeman surprised with three centrals behind to give more consistency to his team and not leave spaces.
The two teams came out with intensity, with high pressure, but with many precautions and without wanting to give the other options, so the fight was centered in the midfield and with hardly any chances.
With football with a lot of control on the part of both, Barça was gaining their place and creating specific actions of certain danger, such as a shot by Dembélé or a free kick by Messi trying to surprise, both solved without haste by the Moroccan Bono.
They were the announcement of the Barcelona goal, at 29 minutes, when Dembélé took advantage of a great service from Messi, after a recovery of former Sevilla player Clément Lenglet, to open the scoring with a crossed shot with his left foot that beat Bestuv His third goal in LaLiga.
From then on, Sevilla, who had completely disappeared upstairs and was overly contemporaneous, wanted to take a step forward, but without a presence at the top and without ever putting a serious Barcelona in trouble.
In the resumption, and despite the three changes of a stroke by Julen Lopetegui, unhappy with what he saw, giving entry to Rekik, Suso and the Moroccan En-Nesyri by Diego Carlos, Munir and Papu, Barcelona continued with dominance before an impotent Seville.
The sevillistas hardly attacked. They were a shadow of their real potential, nothing came of it and, worse still, they hardly even tried it against a Barcelona that, at half throttle, imposed its control and was the one that, with a dropper, was closer to the goal with a center of De Jong that Alba did not reach and in a shot to the post of Dest at game time.
Lopetegui, seeing the inferiority of his own, put two ‘gamers’ on the field such as Óscar Rodríguez and Óliver Torres, for Rakitic and De Jong, very unfortunate, and although Sevilla was more vertical, they continued to command Barcelona with work, play and effectiveness, like the one Messi demonstrated at 85 minutes to sentence the crash.
Before a high shot from the Argentine star, after a great play by a very active Dembélé, and a goal disallowed by Lenglet for a clear offside, Messi scored his goal number 38 in 42 games against Sevilla behind a wall with him Guinean Ilaix Moriba.
Ilaix had a short time before and intervened in that goal by the Argentine, while the other face was the Uruguayan central Ronald Araújo, who replaced Piqué in 67 and only fifteen minutes later retired after suffering from his injury, being replaced by the Frenchman Umtiti .
Even so, in a clash always dominated by Barcelona, Sevilla was blunt in attack, uncomfortable and fearful, with a pace less than it had shown in recent games and as if feeling inferior.
This attitude, in the end, was too heavy a slab for the people of Seville and, in addition to disappointing their people, it scared away their dream, fed more from outside than from within, of being able to fight for the League.
– Datasheet:
0 – Seville: Bonus; Jesús Navas, Koundé, Diego Carlos (Rekik, m.46), Escudero; Jordán, Fernando, Rakitic (Óscar Rodríguez, m.63); Munir (Suso, m.46), Luuk de Jong (Óliver Torres, m.63), Papu Gómez (En-Nesyri, m.46).
2 – Barcelona: Ter Stegen; Mingueza, Piqué (Araújo, m.67) (Umtiti, m.82), Lenglet; Dest, Frenkie de Jong, Busquets, Pedri (Ilaix Moriba, m.71), Jordi Alba; Dembélé (Braithwaite, m.82), Messi.
Goles: 0-1. M.29: Dembélé. 0-2, M.85: Messi.
Referee: Alejandro Hernández Hernández (C. Las Palmas). On the local side he admonished Fernando (m.31), Diego Carlos (m.38), coach Julen Lopetegui (m.44), Escudero (m.45) and Rekik (m.46), and the visitors Messi (m.46). .42) and Dembélé (m.82).
Incidents: Match of the twenty-fifth day of LaLiga Santander, played behind closed doors at the Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán. Lawn in perfect condition.
Curri carrillo
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