After a survival win against Celta de Vigo on Thursday, Barcelona faced a huge challenge against Sevilla. Both teams had won the two previous games in La Liga and are expected to be fighting for the title until the end of the season. Sevilla came with the motivation of an agonizing win in the 92nd minute against Levante and looked to expand their unbeaten run in the league to three matches.
The match ended in a fair 1-1 with both teams being very balanced. Julen Lopetegui’s well-established tactics limited Koeman’s and the draw was a good result for both sides. In this tactical analysis, we will look at the key aspects of this game.
Lineups
Ronald Koeman chose to repeat his starting lineup for the third time in a row except for Ronald Araújo, who substituted Clément Lenglet, sent off in the match against Celta. This change also made Piqué move to the left centre-back position. Apart from the centre-backs, the team was the same: Neto; Sergi Roberto, Ronald Araújo, Gerard Piqué, Jordi Alba; Sergio Busquets, Frenkie De Jong; Antoine Griezmann, Philippe Coutinho, Ansu Fati; Lionel Messi. The new right-back Sergiño Dest was on the bench waiting for his debut.
Sevilla did introduce some changes. Recently signed Marcos Acuña started in the left-back replacing Escudero and forming the defensive line with Jesús Navas, Jules Koundé and Diego Carlos. The midfield trio was the expected Fernando, Ivan Rakitic and Joan Jordán. In the attack, Suso came in for Munir and Luuk De Jong was chosen instead of Youseff En-Nesyri, both of them forming the attacking line with Lucas Ocampos. Choosing De Jong instead of En-Nesyri proved Lopetegui looked to dominate the game and not to counterattack.
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