Nothing went right this Sunday, and painful as it is to admit, the 4-1 defeat was a fair reflection of what happened on the pitch. Sevilla chose this day to produce their best performance of the season so far, while Barça — perhaps missing the spark of several injured players — looked uncharacteristically flat.

Already two goals down, Marcus Rashford gave Barça hope with a splendid volley just before the break, but not even a penalty could bring a second goal. Instead, two late strikes from the home side confirmed that Real Madrid, who beat Villarreal 3-1 the day before, would return to the top of the table.

Two down

For the third consecutive league game, Barça conceded the opening goal — this time from a penalty, and a harsh one at that. Ronald Araujo was adjudged to have clipped Isaac Romero, who was going nowhere, but after a VAR review the referee pointed to the spot. Alexis Sánchez converted against his former club, and Barça were once again playing catch-up.

The penalty was debatable, but things could have got worse before they eventually did. Time and again, Sevilla tore through the Barça defence. José Ángel Carmona shot narrowly wide, Wojciech Szczęsny pulled off a spectacular save from Batista Mendy, and Romero twice wasted simple chances before finally making amends by finishing off a Rubén Vargas assist.

Rashford volley

There was a question mark over that second goal too — Jules Koundé appeared to be fouled in the build-up — but Sevilla had created so many chances that one was worryingly likely to go in eventually. Barça, meanwhile, looked anything but themselves, and it wasn’t until the dying seconds of the first half that they finally reacted.

Pedri floated a cross to Rashford at the far post, and the Englishman delivered a superb volley that Odysseas Vlachodimos had no hope of stopping.

Barça could easily have gone into the break three or four goals down, but instead they trailed by just one, with 45 minutes still to turn things around. With Barça's recent knack of extraordinary comebacks, it was hard not to feel optimistic that this game would also have a happy ending. Sadly, this time, it wasn't going to happen.

Penalty woe

But not without drama along the way. Pedri had Barça’s only major chance of the second half before they were handed a lifeline by substitute Adnan Januzaj, who hadn’t yet touched the ball when he pulled Alejandro Balde to the ground. Robert Lewandowski stepped up to take the penalty — and missed.

That opportunity went begging, as did others. Roony Bardghji twice found himself one-on-one with Vlachodimos, but the Greek keeper prevailed both times.

Sevilla twist the knife

Barça were pushing but so were the opposition. Sevilla showed no intention of sitting back. Szczęsny again came to the rescue, this time denying Djibril Sow, and Akor Adams scored a fine goal that was rightly ruled offside. But there was no flag when Carmona slipped Sevilla’s third past Szczęsny.

There were still eight minutes of injury time still to play, but it was already looking like Barça were heading for their first league defeat to Sevilla in a decade. Any lingering hope of a late miracle vanished when Adams made it 4-1.

A chastening defeat at the Sánchez-Pizjuán, and Barça head into the international break back in second place. Their next outing comes in two weeks’ time, a Saturday 4.15 pm CET kick-off at home in a Catalan derby against struggling Girona.