slumped to their second defeat in three league games.
A Lionel Messi-less Barcelona lost for the second time in three league
games as they were stunned 2-1 by Sevilla on Saturday afternoon.
Goals from Michael Krohn-Dehli and Vicente Iborra in the space of six
second-half minutes at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan sealed the win,
with Neymar's penalty nothing more than a consolation for the
champions.
It leaves Luis Enrique with work to do in the weeks and months ahead
as talisman Messi recovers from the knee injury he suffered early in
Barca's 2-1 win at home to Las Palmas in their previous league game.
Such a significant victory against the title-holders will do much to
ease the pressure on Sevilla's under-fire coach Unai Emery, following
a poor start to the domestic season and their Champions League
hammering at the hands of Juventus in midweek.
Barca came within inches of opening the scoring in the 24th minute,
when a Neymar free-kick hit the post, ricocheted off goalkeeper
Sergio Rico and rolled across the goal-line before Coke was able to
clear.
They hit the woodwork again six minutes before half-time, Luis
Suarez striking the top of the bar with a curling effort from outside the
area.
The visitors had already gone close on two previous occasions
through Neymar and Suarez, but Sevilla more than held their own.
Iborra, Kevin Gameiro and Marco Andreolli all missed presentable
chances inside the opening 15 minutes, while a dangerous whipped
cross from Benoit Tremoulinas required the intervention of Sergi
Roberto to deny the hosts what would have been a golden
opportunity to break the deadlock.
With a minute remaining in the first half, Ivan Rakitic's delicate flick
released Suarez in on goal, but Tremoulinas was on hand to clear the
danger as the Uruguayan hesitated.
Having weathered the storm, Sevilla took the lead seven minutes after
the interval as Gameiro's dangerous ball across the face of goal was
met at the back post by Krohn-Dehli, who smashed past Claudio
Bravo.
The hosts doubled their advantage just six minutes later. Krohn-Dehli
received the ball at his feet on the edge of the Barca area, cut inside
and delivered a lofted diagonal pass toward the penalty spot, where
Iborra, who had managed to stay just onside, rose to head the ball
beyond Bravo and into the corner of the net.
Finally jolted back into life, Barca mounted a sustained assault on the
Sevilla goal just after the hour mark.
Neymar was denied three times in as many minutes by Rico, but
finally got his goal from the penalty spot after Sandro Ramirez's shot
hit the arm of Tremoulinas on the very edge of the area.
Sandro went agonisingly close to equalising for the visitors in the
78th minute after meeting a Luis Suarez cross to smash a shot against
the crossbar, but consecutive defeats on the road leave Barca
struggling to replicate their dominance of last season.
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