Sevilla had been agonisingly close to beating Barcelona but substitute Lionel Messi came on after an hour to score an equaliser in the dying minutes
It took FC Barcelona 358 days to lose their record and 54 seconds to get it back again. Saturday night, week 30 in La Liga and Sevilla were 2-0 up at the Sánchez Pizjuán, but it could have been three, four or five. They had overrun their opponents and although they were exhausted they didn’t have long to hang on now. On the touchline, the fourth official was fiddling with the board; high above him, the scoreboard crept beyond 87 minutes, and there would only be two more added. Alongside the time were two names: goalscorers Franco Vázquez and Luis Muriel. Easter is special in Sevilla, alright. There, at last, Barcelona were defeated; unbeaten in the league since last April, 36 games ago, they were about to be stopped by the same side that eventually stopped Real Sociedad’s record-breaking team in May 1980 – only Barcelona were falling two games earlier.
It had to happen sometime. As it turned out, it will have to happen some other time, although now they’re asking: why does it have to happen at all? After all, if it didn’t happen this time … “We want the perfect season,” Ivan Rakitic said afterwards, disbelief in the air, the thought forming that they could even become the first team to go an entire league without losing. As for Sevilla, this was hard to take. “I won’t sleep tonight,” said manager Vincenzo Montella. “If the game had finished five minutes earlier, we would have won.” Half that would have done it. Half decent finishing would have done it, too. “Frustrating,” Muriel called it. Sevilla had 21 shots, eight of them his. As the game went into the 88th minute, there was time for two more, both of them Barcelona’s and both of them goals.
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Girona 1-1 Levante, Athletic Bilbao 1-1 Celta Vigo, Las Palmas 0-3 Real Madrid, Sevilla 2-2 Barcelona, Espanyol 0-0 Alavés, Leganés 0-1 Valencia, Eibar 0-0 Real Sociedad, Málaga 1-0 Villarreal, Atlético Madrid 1-0 Deportivo de La Coruña.
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