Sevilla v Barcelona: Matchday 25

4th place is lost due to Getafe’s win vs Rayo earlier. Machín has conjured up something a bit different with his selection:

This tells me Promes will be playing in a position where he can actually hurt. And hey, it’s a debut start for Rog. Will the boys pull thru?

Also, the past week as seen us lose an important figure in Sevilla’s history. Ex-President Roberto Alés passed at the age of 84. He was at the helm between the crucial years of 2000-2002. Without him, who knows where we’d be.

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RIP Don Roberto Alés.

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Good first half, we’re doing very very well. It seems that this strategy is working, Wober and Rog are both fighters and deserve more and more minutes with the right strategy and mindset.

I hope that we don’t screw this up and end up losing - even a draw would do at this point.

VAMOS!

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Finally Promes at his position, thats Banega we need, hoping for equally good second half.

Vamos !!

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Great 1st half by Sevilla here. For once, Machín takes a chance and drops an out-of-form Silva, and goes for a more dynamic approach. Our 3-5-2 roots are there, but it resembles a 4-4-1-1 when defending. The flexibility with Mercado & Wöber allows us to do this.

I must also highlight Rog here. Real nice on the ball (no surprising for a Croatian CM), but positionally he’s been fantastic. Doesn’t overcommit himself to put the team in a bad situation, and it allows Sarabia to have more freedom.

This Barça team really doesn’t look threatening. It took a sublime Messi goal to keep them in this game. It’s been pretty open so far, so i worry for our defenders once Dembele comes on.

2-1 at the half. Let’s be smart in possession, cause every giveaway has led to a chance. Pique on a yellow, so i’m hoping for Quincy to terrorize him in the 2nd half.

¡VAMOS MI SEVILLA!

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Yep everyone is playing well. Rog lost Messi which led to the goal, but we are playing well. Vamos!

Is Mercado injured ?

I’m not sure, but weird switch

Another one injured…how is this posible…

Amadou on for Wober who picked up a knock. Good day for him.

Mesa on for Rog Sevilla out of subs with 30 minutes left.

Inb4 a Messi hattrick…

You suck :slight_smile:

What could have been. What a difference a half makes. Machin blew the subs, injuries again hurting the team. So frustrating. Out of Champions league place now.

We’re a very pathetic team this season. Vaclik - probably the worst match in his career, disastrous goalkeeping and amateurish mistakes.

Once Mudo came on I had a feeling we’d throw this… day and night performances comparing first and second half.

We should recoup and qualify in CL only after a few years, once we have consolidated as a team with serious players and a serious coach.

Barca humiliated us with 25% of force. Shameful!

I know the team play pretty good overall.
But the whole effort they made and the tactics feels like a fucking joke to me.
What the hell they’re playing in the 2nd half!?
Aren’t they know giving away the ball to Barca always lead to a humiliation every time?
Marko Rog is pretty average, average ball control, average passing but still miles better than stupid Mesa and maybe arrogant Banega and Vazquez.

Don’t tell me we’ll lose the 4th to Getafe and alaves…
Seriously, every human can see our midfield is pretty damn weak and all they do in last summer is Amadou that can’t control midfield, loan the glass made Gonalons and fucking Mesa.

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Marko Rog owning the midfield like a boss today in the first half definitely shows how weak the rest of the midfield (starters) is this season: Banega, Mudo, Mesa. I’d give Amadou a pass still as he hasn’t played a lot and is not a starter, but the regulars have disappointed a lot.

It’d be easy to say the injuries took away from our performance in the 2nd half. But as a manager, Machín should be prepared beyond all situations of a match. He’s slow with in-game adjustments. Mudo is abysmal off the ball, so i don’t know why he’s the first option OTB to protect a lead.

On the positive side of things, i’m glad Machín took the onus to change something. I know he has his own philosophy, but he must learn to adhere to what kind of players he has, instead of imposing a system that’ll have your important players out of position.

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I think if we could have finished with the same 11 that we started with we could have won that.
The injuries to wobber and Rog were one turning point, once Mudo and Mesa arrived we lost the midfield completely. The other was the introduction of Dembele who used his speed to great effect in getting behind our defence.
Some blame must also go to Vaclik, it was his poor clearance that set up their 2nd goal although he did make a great save in the 1st half at 1-0.
Nothing we could do with the 1st Messi goal, this was a truly incredible finish that only he could have scored. It
even brought him some applause from the Sevilla fans.
I still feel we have a good chance of getting 4th place now that we have got the games against r madrid & Barca out of the way (Getafe have both still to play) we only have 1 real tough game left away at Atletico. Provided that we can get points from Alaves at home and Getafe away we are still in there.

Here’s a tale from yesterday that will probably not have been picked up by the tv crews.
This was the first game I’ve ever attended where the referee was given so much abuse by the home fans for simply entering the pitch to warm up, even before a ball was kicked.

Mateu Lahoz . You deserved it. :sunglasses:

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The first Messi goal never touched his boot, it was a shin shot, about 3 inches above his boot, a mis-hit, but nevertheless it flew in, a golazo that deserved applause.

Sevilla were really great, they’re forming a new team with new players (Rog and Wober) in key positions. It was the changes that caused the drop in intensity, a big drop, but we were still good enough to worry Barcelonoa.

But you’ve got to hand it to Barcelona, Sevilla were superior but everytime we allowed them upfield they were in our face, in our face. And how they criticised each other when Sevilla scored, incredible.

I agree with Shendm that it was probably Vaclic’ worst game, with the last two goals he was out too soon and got done by the overhead ball. It’s a learning curve and he’ll be aware of that next game.

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