Leaders FC Barcelona have capitalized on rival Real Madrid’s blunder in Spain’s LaLiga and taken a big step towards the league title.
The Catalans won 3-0 (0-0) against FC Sevilla on Sunday evening and celebrated their fifth success in a row in the league. Barca are now eight points ahead of Los Blancos in the table, who previously surprisingly lost 0-1 (0-1) at RCD Mallorca.
Barcelona initially struggled against Sevilla with former Bayern star Robert Lewandowski and international goalkeeper Marc-André ter Stegen. In the second round, defender Jordi Alba (58th) saved the favorites after a great pass from Franck Kessie. Gavi (70′) and Raphinha (79′) then secured the three points for Barca.
An own goal by Nacho (13th) put Real around national player Toni Rüdiger on the losing road. The Mallorcan-born Marco Asensio (60th) missed the greatest opportunity to equalize, failing with a penalty kick from goalkeeper Predrag Rajkovic.
A few days before the semi-finals at the Club World Cup on Wednesday (8 p.m.) against Al-Ahly from Egypt, coach Carlo Ancelotti initially did without Toni Kroos, the ailing Karim Benzema, Luka Modric and David Alaba. Goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois was also injured during the warm-up.
After a pass from Rüdiger, Vinicius Junior fell against Rajkovic, but Asensio missed the opportunity from the point. Even the addition of Modric, Kroos and Alaba did not change anything about the Champions League winner’s third defeat of the season in La Liga. Rüdiger missed a header in added time.