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