Barcelona's struggles without Lionel Messi continued as second-half goals from Michael Krohn-Dehli and Vicente Iborra consigned the European champions to a second league defeat in three games 2-1 at Sevilla. Neymar pulled a goal back from the penalty spot 16 minutes from time, but the injury-struck visitors were left to rue a host of missed opportunities and some fine goalkeeping by Sergio Rico as Sevilla registered their first league win over the Catalans since 2007.
Defeat leaves Barca still a point off leaders Villarreal, but they can now be passed by either Real Madrid or Atletico Madrid when they face off on Sunday. "It is almost incredible that we go away from here having scored just one goal after seeing the ball ping around the opposition box," said Barca boss Luis Enrique. "We had 10 minutes in the second-half which have cost us when Sevilla were much superior. They got ahead, after that we tried in every way possible but we can only congratulate Sevilla for their effort and the result."
Without Messi and Andres Iniesta the pressure was on Neymar and Luis Suarez to take even more responsiblity and the former forced Rico into his first save of the afternoon with a low effort after just five minutes. Neymar's runs from deep were causing Sevilla huge problems and Suarez should have done better when his shot was deflected wide by Timothee Kolodziejczak after being played in by his strike partner.
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