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Barcelona continues to be in first place even though they faltered late in the second half and tied against Sevilla FC on Saturday afternoon. With this tie, Barcelona opened the doors for Real Madrid once again for the run to La Liga title. With 75 points and Real Madrid with 73, anything can happen in La Liga and it will be a surprise if Barcelona allows another loss or tie to give Madrid the lead in La Liga table.
Barcelona seemed to have their regular squad on the field when they faced Sevilla and yet struggled against them to get the win. Barcelona continues to be in this roller coaster of great and bad form week in and week out and seem to improve every time they play in the Champions League.
Lionel Messi and Neymar Jr. were able to give Barcelona a 2-0 lead, but blew it in the second half when Kevin Gameiro was able to get the tying goal in the 84 minute to allow them to go home with one point in the table. Messi got his 34th goal of the season while Neymar was finally able to score after being goal-less for six games. He got his 18th goal of the season and hopes to find his form again to help the Catalan team out for the rest of the season and get the necessary points to stay in the lead.
Sevilla was also able to continue their undefeated streak as they stretched this out to seven games now. Ever Banega and Kevin Gameiro became the heroes for Sevilla to get point and tie with Valencia in la liga table with 62 points.
Messi opened up the scoring in the 14th minute when a pass from Neymar allowed Messi to take his time and curl the ball past goalkeeper Sergio Rico to make it 1-0.
Neymar made it 2-0 in the 30th minute when he converted a free-kick over the wall and gave the keeper no chance at all to stop it from going in.
Ever Banega made it 2-1 in the 38th minute when he took a shot from a long distance. Claudio Bravo got a touch on it but was not good enough to save it from going in. The keeper was able to stop that ball from going in but did not put enough effort to keep the game 2-0.
Kevin Gameiro got the game tied up in the 84th minute when a run from Jose Reyes found Aleix Vidal make a run on the right side of the field. Vidal took on Jeremy Mathieu and was able to cross it to Gameiro, whom Gerard Pique left wide open. Gameiro was able to kiss the ball and get it past Bravo to make it a 2-2 game.
Barcelona was not strong enough against Sevilla and have to be stronger when they face Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday night for the UEFA Champions League round. They will then face a strong Valencia team on Saturday afternoon and hope to get the three points there. As for Sevilla, they will face Zenit Saint Petersburg on Thursday for the UEFA Europa League quarterfinals and then Granada on Sunday afternoon.
The man of the match goes out to Gameiro who was able to bring Sevilla back into the game with the help of Vidal and Reyes.
Photo by: Angel Fernandez/Associated Press