Ten-man Barca beats Sevilla to close gap on Madrid
Barcelona moved to within two points of Real Madrid at the top of LaLiga and one behind second-placed Atletico Madrid after beating Sevilla 4-1 away from home, despite being reduced to 10 men for almost half an hour.
Robert Lewandowski put Barcelona ahead early, poking home from close range in the seventh minute, but Sevilla equalised immediately after the restart through Ruben Vargas after Saul Niguez beat the offside trap.
It remained level at half-time before substitute Fermin Lopez put Barcelona back in front with a headed finish a minute into the second period.
Raphina then struck with a superb effort from the edge of the box that flew into the bottom corner, which stung Sevilla after it had strong appeals for a penalty turned away moments earlier.
But the officials did hand the hosts a distinct advantage just after the hour mark.
Fermin was initially shown a yellow card for an ugly-looking tackle on Djibril Sow.
While the Barcelona attacker won the ball in the challenge, the referee upgraded the punishment to a red card after being called to look at replays by the vidieo assistant referee (VAR), deeming the follow-through to be reckless and dangerous.
Sevilla, though, was unable to make its numerical advantage count and indeed Barcelona added another goal late on through Eric Garcia, who headed home a free-kick from Raphina in the 89th minute to seal all three points.
Barcelona remains in third place on the table with 48 points, four ahead of Athletic Club in fourth position but more importantly closer to the Madrid sides after their draw at Santiago Bernabeu on Sunday (AEDT).
