Barcelona’s Cesc Fabregas
Cesc Fabregas netted a brace as Barcelona came back from two goals down to record a 3-2 win over Sevilla in their La Liga game at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan on Saturday night.
The Sevillistas stormed ahead through goals from Piotr Trochowski and Alvaro Negredo, while David Villa came off the bench to score a late winner after Fabregas had scored twice to tie the scores.
The visitors could have taken the lead as early as the second minute when Xavi Hernandez played a through-pass for Pedro, but the Spaniard rushed his shot and blasted the ball over the crossbar.
Eleven minutes later veteran goalkeeper Andres Palop was forced into action as he dived to his left to keep out a low effort from Messi following some neat passing from Tito Vilanova’s men.
Sevilla had their first shot on target in the 19th minute as right winger Jesus Navas cut the ball back to find Ivan Rakitic just outside the penalty area, but his first-time shot went straight to Victor Valdes.
The hosts then took the lead against the run of play in the 26th minute when Gary Medel saw his shot blocked by Javier Mascherano, but the ball fell kindly for Trochowski on the left, who then beat Valdes with a low shot towards the far post.
The Catalans came close to leveling matters just two minutes later when Pedro’s cross was cleared towards Messi, but his goal-bound shot was kept out by a desperate block from Hedwiges Maduro.
The home side then came close to doubling their lead eight minutes before the break when Rakitic found Alvaro Negredo near the right corner of the box, but his left-footed shot curled wide of the far post as the hosts took a slender lead into the break.
However, Negredo did get it right three minutes into the second half as he received a pass from Medel and stormed past Alex Song before calmly chipping the ball over a helpless Valdes.
The Catalans came close to reducing the deficit in the 50th minute when Pedro met a Jordi alba cross with a powerful volley, but Alberto Botia did well to clear the ball off the line.
However, Barca did pull one goal back three minutes later when Messi found Pedro on the edge of the box, who then left the ball for Fabregas to fire an unstoppable left-footed shot into the back of the net.
Messi then came close to netting the equaliser in the 61st minute from a freekick which seemed to be headed for the top right corner, but 38-year-old Palop showed great agility with an excellent one-handed save to tip the ball over the crossbar.
Another turning point came in the 72nd minute when the hosts were reduced to ten men when Chilean midfielder Medel was shown a straight red as he was adjudged to have head-butted Fabregas.
Despite playing with one man less, Sevilla managed to keep Barca at bay but the resistance was broken in the 89th minute when Fabregas received a great pass from Messi before poking the ball into the back of the net from the centre of the box.
And just when it looked like Sevilla would walk away with a point, they were dealt another blow in the third minute of added time when Villa fired home from close range after receiving a pass from Messi.
Barcelona are the only team yet to drop a point La Liga, while Sevilla have seen their unbeaten run coming to an end.