It is easy to fall into the temptation of contempt for the footballer.
Some seem clumsy and bowlegged.
Others, incoherent and clueless.
And those beyond, old and rusty.
But there is no champion team without outlaws.
No players willing to rebel against suspicion.
If Barcelona gave a blow to the League this Sunday -Real Madrid is already eight points behind- it was thanks to three of its pieces that have been most doubted.
Raphinha
and
Jordi Alba
notched an assist and a goal for beard, while
Kessié
, after an astonishing turn between four opponents in the opening goal, earned the right to be more than just a singular character.
There are coaches who like the psychological stress of survival.
One of them is
Jorge Sampaoli
, an extreme character in execution and forms, histrionic, and from whom you cannot expect him to come to your house with a smile and a box of cookies.
Sampaoli arrived convinced that he had enlisted a good handful of faithful willing to strictly follow his commandments.
The main one, to deny Barcelona any space until they can drag it into the knot of despair for a stretch.
He got it in the first chapter, not the second.
After half an hour,
Xavi Hernández
's team had already taken seven corners.
But no one in the stadium seemed capable of escaping from that feeling that had nothing to do with boredom, but with impotence.
The fans began to sing the notes of the
Cant del Barça
the day the club fired its co-author
Josep Maria Espinàs
.
"I reached the age to recognize that I was lucky, and also the taught will not to betray it," the writer said.
It was what it was about.
Busquets injury
But there was no way that Barcelona could find the thread to the game, because they could have the ball, but much less time or space.
The ball was running without joy, and the team paid for having lost the compass of Sergio Busquets
too soon
, who is only missed when he is not there.
The Barcelona captain had thrown himself to the ground in a fight with
En-Nesyri
.
The Moroccan striker, the only Sevilla footballer with a license to attack, stepped on the Catalan player in the dispute and he saw his left ankle twist badly.
Not even five minutes had passed and Xavi already had to remove Kessié from the bench, the most antagonistic midfielder to Busquets that he has in the squad.
The Ivorian gives off the air of a strange entity in the framework of Barça.
Anything escapes sanity with him involved.
But that was just what the Catalans needed on an impossible night for poetry.
With a short circuit in the throat of the field before the comfort of the three center-backs lined up by Sampaoli, Barcelona had a hard time finding answers on the shore.
On the left, the impetus of Balde
was missed
.
While, on the right, Raphinha asked for balls without success.
His teammates, in the first half, avoided turning the game over to the Brazilian's domain, perhaps aware of the extreme's difficulties in saving Sevilla's defensive aid.
Although everything changed after the break.
Notorious as their dominance was, Barcelona barely sniffed at
Bono
's door three times in the first act.
Between the Moroccan goalkeeper and
Gudelj they
blocked
Lewandowski
in the area after fifteen minutes.
The Pole then tested it from afar.
But, this time, his hammer blow from the front of him knocked Bono out with the fingers of his right mitt.
Nor could Barça go any further from set pieces, with
Araujo
heading a couple of feet from the post.
Sampaoli, who knows why, deconstructed a plan that was working for him into an ugly scribble.
He got rid of En Nesyri so that
Rakitic
could start acting as a false center forward.
There is nothing.
He also made use of
Bryan Gil
, perhaps with the hope that he would attack the spaces better than
Oliver Torres
.
But the only thing the coach achieved was to confuse the footballers of him.
Kessié opened the seas behaving like a basketball center between rivals who put down roots on the grass with a face of not understanding anything.
Alba hit his first goal of the course.
Raphinha, who had already taken part in the action, was loaded with morale to jump into the bush after being spotted by
Koundé
and being able to give Gavi the second.
And the Brazilian, who was already in glory, closed the late festival by reaching the net after Jordi Alba's cross.
Because everyone is worth in this Barça.
Because there are no titles without supporting actors.
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FC Barcelona
Sevilla F.C.
Articles Francisco Cabezas