Flick's Barcelona Stumbles into Break After Sevilla Humiliation
Barcelona, 6 Oct (ONA) --- The international break has arrived not as a respite, but as a mercy ruling for a reeling FC Barcelona. A week that began with Champions League disappointment culminated in a crushing 4-1 defeat at Sevilla, exposing the cracks in Hansi Flick’s project and sending the club into a state of introspection.
The signs of trouble were omnipresent. The sweltering Seville heat, pushing 33 degrees Celsius (91° Fahrenheit), seemed to sap the life from a Barcelona side already missing the spark of injured teenage sensation Lamine Yamal. What followed was a performance devoid of fortune and fortitude, a perfect storm of individual errors and collective failure.
Sevilla, winless against Barcelona in the Spanish La Liga for a decade, seized their moment with ruthless efficiency. The torment began early, as Isaac Romero—a constant thorn in Barcelona’s side—earned a penalty that former Blaugrana winger Alexis Sánchez coolly converted in the 13th minute. Romero then compounded the misery, finishing a devastating counter-attack after Jules Koundé was dispossessed in the 36th.
A flicker of hope emerged just before halftime when loanee Marcus Rashford marked his first La Liga goal with a clever near-post finish. But any momentum was squandered in the 74th minute in a moment that will haunt Robert Lewandowski. After Alejandro Balde was fouled in the box, the Polish striker saw his stutter-step penalty kick sail wide of the left post, a miss that seemed to deflate his team entirely.
Sevilla capitalized on the despair, with José Ángel Carmona sealing the historic victory with a superb long-range strike in the 89th minute before Akor Adams added a fourth deep in stoppage time.
The result leaves Barcelona nursing its second consecutive loss, with the gap to arch-rivals Real Madrid at the top of the table now standing at two points. For coach Hansi Flick, the break is a critical juncture.
As Barcelona club scatters for the international window, the task ahead is clear: Flick must find a way to mend his team’s fractured confidence and rediscover the identity that has gone missing at the season's first moment of real adversity.
--- Ends/Khalid
