It's not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters. Epictetus
A draw at one of the toughest grounds in Spain can never be claimed as stumbling/setback, especially if the Home team has never been defeated not even once this season there. But still to throw away a 2-0 lead especially with the La Liga title in the balance could prove to be really scary when the season ends. Before this match, every football pundits have identified Estadio Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán as the place where both FC Barcelona and Real Madrid could end up dropping points. In that background, the two points lost after leading 2-0 does feel like a loss in some way. Had we won the pressure on Real Madrid (who are currently two points behind Barca ) would have been enormous. Every team has struggled away at Sevilla in recent times, but Barca in recent times have managed to successfully decode the key to success at the Estadio Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán . Prior to this draw the last time Barca dropped points here was in the 2011-12 season.
Why blame the coach for the collective failure of the team? We Cules have recent times has been in some kind of rush to blame Luis Enrique at every give opportunity. But this failure or better put the failure to get the best result looked like a failure of the manager than the team itself. No one was surprised when we conceded the equaliser with just minutes left in the clock. It was bound to happen, the signs were all there. That is where Luis Enrique failed to read the game at all, especially when it was swinging heavily out of our grasp. It is easy to say the game was decided by three moments - 1) Luis Saurez terrible miss which would have gave us a 3-1 lead, 2) Benega's brilliant strike helped by a bit of Bravo mistake and 3) The final goal coming with just five minutes to go.
Those three moments changed the match result but those were not isolated events. The momentum was shifting vigorously to the home side and he needed to act just after the break. It was the similar pattern where we have seen many times recently. The opposing team were flooding out our midfield and Busquets were struggling heavily to keep up with their heavy pressure. What we needed was a helping hand and Xavi's substitution also was more or less perfect. The problem was that with the same formation Sevilla didn't have to change anything to continue there style. That's something Luis Enrique needs to understand. The tremendous pressing opposition team do to our middle can only be countered by getting more personal into the midfield. That what kind of happened against real Madrid when Messi shifted in to more or less in the midfield. The sooner Luis Enrique realise this the better. Because against PSG we may face similar test and at a higher rate. A 4-3-3 system may not work with a heavy pressing opposition midfield. We may need a change in formation and its not the fault of the players. In the end the game of Football resembles chess to an extent, its all about getting the advantage in your strength area and midfield is ours.
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