Sevilla 0 Barça 3
Saturday, 29 November 08, 03:01 PM · Comments (40)
Barça continued their incredible winning streak away from home with a 0-3 win at the Sanchez Pizjuan that put Barça six points clear at the top of the table tonight with Villarreal and Valencia playing tomorrow. The scoreline suggests an easy win and in the end it was, but Sevilla had the edge in the first half and Barça needed a bit of luck to go in at half time in front through Samuel Eto'o's goal. The second half was totally controlled by Barça and two late goals from Leo Messi sealed the victory.
The defences were generally on top early on with the first real chance falling to Luis Fabiano in the tenth minute but he volleyed over. Barça were struggling to find any spaces up front and only managed a couple of shots off target from Henry and Messi. Then in the 20th minute we got the bit of luck we needed: Messi drifted infield, he played the ball forward to Xavi who had a bad first touch but still had time to try and play the ball wide for Alves, Fernando Navarro intercepted but only succeeded in sending the ball across the area into the path of Samuel Eto'o who pounced to hit home a first time effort into the roof of the net.
Four minutes later Henry lost the ball and Sevilla broke dangerously, Luis Fabiano outpaced Piqué but shot poorly wide of the far post. Eto'o forced a save from Palop with a speculative shot from 25 yards which bounced awkwardly in front of the goalkeeper. There was then a scare as Sevilla appealed for a penalty when Gerard Piqué challenged Kanoute but replays suggested it was no penalty. Barça continued to dominate the possession but the better chances fell to Sevilla, in the 42nd minute the Barça defence were caught sleeping at a free kick allowing Kanoute a great chance with just Valdés to beat, but Valdés did enough to put Kanoute off and his shot from 8 yards hit the crossbar.
The second half proved to be much more comfortable as Sevilla ran out of steam, they couldn't keep up the level of ferocious marking and Barça began to find a bit more time on the ball. Leo Messi moved into the middle with Eto'o on the right and in the last 30 minutes the Argentinian began to cause Sevilla problems with his runs. Henry was active on the left side but once again his performance was let down by some poor shooting. In defence we looked very solid in with Toure Yaya doing a fantastic job breaking up numerous Sevilla attacks, Victor Valdés didn't have a shot to save in the entire half.
In the 65th minute a Messi run through the middle ended with a soft shot from Henry, and then three minutes later Messi went it alone past two defenders but his shot was parried by Palop, Alves then had a shot wide after good work from Eto'o. Barça's second was always more likely than a Sevilla equalizer and with twelve minutes remaining the killer blow arrived. Xavi headed a clearance forward into the path of Messi who controlled with his head before surprising Palop by firing the bouncing ball into the corner of the net from 20 yards.
Luis Fabiano was then sent off for an off the ball elbow on Busquets, this was a shame as the striker will now miss Sevilla's game next week against Real Madrid. Messi put the icing on the cake in injury time running on to Hleb's pass before rounding Palop and brilliantly hooking the ball back into the goal from a tight angle.
Leo Messi will get all the headlines for his two goals, but for me the man of the match was Toure Yaya who was immense. There were also notable performances from Rafa Marquez, who is looking back to his best despite a couple of wayward passes, and Dani Alves was also impressive returning to play his ex-team mates, despite being caused a few early problems by the dangerous Adriano. We are beginning to see the real Alves and if he continues to improve the €30million to bring him to Barça will have been well spent.
With Real Madrid losing at Getafe this was an excellent night for us. The victory is the tenth consecutive away win in all competitions which is a club record. It is also the sixth straight away victory in the league which equals the record of 2003/2004 and 2005/2006. Barça are top scorers in the league while the defence have conceded the least goals. The six point lead helps us to face the coming difficult games with a bit of a cushion and with our confidence sky high.
Barça: Valdés 7; Alves 7, Piqué 6.5, Marquez 7, Puyol 6.5; Xavi 7 (Gudjohnsen m87, --), Toure 8.5, Keita 6 (Busquets m74, 6); Messi 8, Eto'o 6.5, Henry 6 (Hleb m89, --).
Goals: m20 Eto'o 0-1, m78 Messi 0-2, m92 Messi 0-3
Barça yellow cards: m31 Eto'o (misses next game), m62 Marquez, m76 Piqué
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Barca boy
Eto'o's yellow might actually be a blessing in disguise. He will miss Valencia next week but will be rested and ready for Real Madrid the following week without a doubt.So, I think we can play well against Valencia without him.
Congrats Barça
first of all, the picture above cracked one f my ribs, nice one nic
but was he actually attempting to kiss him
to BARCA, we really on fire, this was a very strong performance from the whole team, i was really impressed with the defence though kanoute and fabiano bullied their way sometimes. apart from that, they were excellent. even xavi and toure fell back beautifully
toure was immense in the midfield winning balls and providing passes as well as good link-ups, thank God they were not plannin on sellin him, keita was important for the physical battle thgh he contributed little to the attack, tthose guys marked ferociously in d 1st half, messi had almost nowhere to dribble to, that squillaci guy kept on pushin him of the ball
eto was just the normal E9, instinctive ruthless finishin, thats wat i need from henry who postionally played the left wing role excellently today but his striking characteristics where nowhere to be seen, if he can work harder on his shooting, he'll get more goals from that position. hleb also sprayed a beautiful pass to messi, i saw a good understanding btw him and messi
UP BARCa
SUPERB performance by the team today yet again...We are really on fire...Everytime i predict the score to be 2-1, we normally do really well...Messi is the best cuz he actually performs well in the big matches unlike that Ronaldo...that volleyed goal was stunning....Anyways, Madrid lost their game...we won ours....Things can't get any better than that...I hope Valencia and Villareal loose as well tomorrow..
I think today was a top top performance from the players!!
Defence was good, Pique did get burned by Fabiano for pace but stopped him from coming inside and he shot well wide and Valdes did what he needed to do well. They still were suspect from crosses but thankfully Sevilla blew their chances however dont expect Villa & Co. to be so generous next game.
Mideild was like I said earlier. DM was the KEY to the game. Pep played two of them and it worked a treat. Toure was excellend and Keita played well aswell. Xavi was a very good go between and was very good as always and everyone should be glad he signed a new contract! 
Up front was excellent. I remember several time Eto, Messi and even Henry winning tackles in midfeild for the team. Eto was very good even though he missed that sitter which made me laugh so hard as he was so upset with himself but he can be allowed as he scores so much and his goal was very well taken. Messi produced another world class finish for his second and did extremely well even though Sevilla put at least two players on him. As I said, this year he will not Ballon Dor but next year for sure. He passes more, sets up goals and is so much more a team player which for me has made him complete! Henry, played very well as a winger. His touch was very good and linked up well. His shots were not good but he is asked to play as a winger and I thought he did very well and gave the sevilla rb a bad time. Hopefully he will continue good form especailly as he will play striker when Eto is out.
Very, very good victory for FCB. And even sweeter now Madrid loses. Good times Barca fans, good time 
. I felt when Adriano switched over to the right, it might be tricky for puyol seeing how Adriano was their best player on the pitch but naw Puyol is a rock. He just slide tackled him in the box and shut him up. There is no moving him. Only two or three attacks came from their right wing. Majority of them were from their left. 
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what can i say........... YYYEEEAAAHHH
the 1 thing i am pissed of about is eto's yellow but hopefully it will leave a space for henry in the next games with hleb on the left
BARCA ALL THE WAY
Congratulations Barça, and happy birthday,...