Barcelona Beats Sevilla 5-4 in Thriller

The match started off on a high note for Sevilla, scoring a goal in the 3rd minute. But as always, the Barcelona star, Lionel Messi worked his magic and got Barca back up a goal at the 15th minute. Both of Messi’s goals were from free kicks, the first time in his career that he has scored more than once in a game by way of free kicks. 

The first came in the 7th minute when Barca’s Luis Suarez was fouled right outside the penalty box. Messi made it look easy, placing the ball over the wall and into the back of the net. The second goal came in the 15th minute when Messi curled the ball from 30 yards out into the top corner out of reach from the Sevilla goalkeeper. By halftime the score was 3-1 because of a goal by Rafinha when Luis Suarez’s shot was saved and came back to him, which was crossed over to the Barcelona player who started for the injured Neymar.

Right after halftime it seemed as if Barcelona was going to walk away with an easy win, when Luis Suarez got a goal himself in the 52nd minute from an assist by Sergio Busquets. The score was 4-1, but Sevilla was not going down without a fight. Just five minutes later, Sevilla player Jose Antonio Reyes scored on an assist by Vitolo, making the score 4-2. A cross, in the 72nd minute, barely nicked the head of Sevilla’s Vitolo when Jeremy Mathieu pulled him to the ground in order to prevent him for scoring on the header, however a penalty was called and Sevilla was suddenly only a goal down when Kevin Gameiro rocketed the penalty into the net.

With only 9 minutes left in regulation Sevilla found the equalizer they were praying for; it came on an assist by Ciro Immobile to Yehven Konoplyanka who easily tapped the ball in. The game saw overtime which was just as exciting as regulation. With a barrage of fouls, yellow cards, and even a scrumble, Messi had chance after chance to score a hat trick, all from free kicks. A shot in the second half of overtime saw the ball just barely miss the back of the net on a free kick by the Argentine, a goal that would have closely resembled his second goal. However, when you are playing against a team as good as Barcelona you cannot afford to give up too many scoring chances, and Sevilla found that out the hard way. After Messi’s shot bounced off the Sevilla wall of defenders, it rebounded back to the foot of Messi, who sent it a laser on goal, splitting through the legs of players of both teams which was barely saved by the Sevilla goalkeeper. However, after the ball bounced off the keeper, Barca’s Pedro found the back of the net on a very easy shot. Sevilla had two more chances before overtime ended both barely missing, one on a header by Coke and another on a kick by Adil Rami.

It is kind of ironic that Pedro would be the player to win the game for Barcelona, as there were amid reports before the game that he did not wish to continue playing for the team, and a deal with Manchester United was almost complete. Pedro came off the bench to save the team that he was leaving.