Former Blaugrana player Ivan Rakitic will be the one most responsible if Barcelona’s life becomes more difficult at the end of this season. His goal in injury time brought Sevilla to win over Granada, last night.
The race towards the end of the La Liga season now involves three teams, who are fighting for second place in the table after Sevilla’s 4-2 win over Granada on Saturday (9/4) and are now three points clear of Barcelona and Atletico.
For a long time there was the impression that this Sevilla vs Granada match would end in a draw, which would benefit both Barca and the Rojiblancos. Darwin Machis put the visitors ahead before goals from Diego Carlos and Lucas Ocampos turned the situation into Sevilla’s advantage.
But two minutes before the end, Victor Diaz scored for Granada. Luckily former Barcelona player Ivan Rakitic netted a third before Papu Gomez added another in the 10th minute of injury time. Score 4-2 for Sevilla victory!
The win leaves Julen Lopetegui’s side now on 60 points, nine points away from leaders Real Madrid, while just three points above Xavi Hernandez and Diego Simeone’s squad.
The match at the Estadio Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán was uneventful with the hosts registering up to 74 percent dominance of the ball, leaving only 26 percent for Granada who occupy 16th position in the standings.
But even so the goal experiment is not that contrast. There were 16 attempted attacks from the home side which were matched by 15 attempts by Granada. Eight of Sevilla’s efforts were on target but only four were scored.
There was actually one more goal by Rafael Mir midway through the second half but this one was canceled out by the referee after being preceded by a foul. The visitors recorded five attacks on target.
Barca will look to take over again in second place in LaLiga when they travel to 19th-placed Levante this weekend. While Atletico go to another relegation team, RCD Mallorca. Thus the position of the three teams in the order of two to four will most likely change.
This is a welcome result for Julen Lopetegui, who will be happy to see his men struggle until the last minute. Prior to this they had failed to win four times, starting with three draws against Alaves, Rayo Vallecano and Real Sociedad, before losing to Pedri’s only goal against Barcelona last week.
