A ‘glass jaw’ at the back and profligacy up front have left Julen Lopetegui’s side with the club’s worst start in 41 years
Ivan Rakitic gathered his men and turned to the north. A couple of hours earlier, a banner had been hung across that end declaring “unity makes strength”, their version of the Marseillaise thundering round, and they were still singing in there now. Sevilla’s exhausted players stood before the fans, all those swirling flags, and listened. It was 11 o’clock and it was loud but the lyrics weren’t the same now and they hadn’t come to celebrate; they had come to apologise. “We had to,” Rakitic, the captain, said. They had been beaten again, this time by Barcelona. Four weeks into the season and they have a single point, a crisis coming.
As the final minutes of a 3-0 defeat played out on Saturday night, the game long since lost, Sevilla’s coach, Julen Lopetegui, had stood on the touchline, blinking into the lights. Now, instead of heading down the tunnel out of there, his players stood on the pitch, silently facing the music. Suso bowed slightly, sorry. Hands were held up, palms together. They were there for some time, well after Barcelona had gone. The sporting director joined them, eventually guiding them to the dressing room. In the north end, the song appealed for testicular fortitude; in the other three stands, to where the players had turned next, it was different.
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