La Liga: Real Madrid the winner as Sevilla lose ground in title race with Barcelona draw

Real Madrid retained their five-point lead over Sevilla as Papu Gomez and Ronald Araujo found the net for Sevilla and Barcelona respectively in a 1-1 draw at the Sánchez Pizjuán Stadium

It was a night of reversed fortunes in La Liga as Sevilla hosted Barcelona in a match that held significance for the title race but in a usual manner. With the tables turned, it was Sevilla, not Barcelona who were looking to keep pace with Real Madrid at the top of the table. 

Six points separated Los Blancos from Sevilla at the start of the match and Carlo Ancelotti's side will be the most pleased with the 1-1 scoreline at the end of the night in Seville, seeing as their five point and eight goal advantage remain intact despite their weekend draw with relegation-threatened Cadiz.

Meanwhile, Barcelona continue to languish further down the table, with 15 points now separating them and bitter rivals Real Madrid after just 18 rounds of matches. On the evidence of play at the Sanchez Pizjuan, the Blaugrana will remain far off the top for a while after fielding a largely inexperienced front three containing Ferran Jutgla and Abdessamad Ezzalzouli alongside Ousmane Dembele. 

Julen Lopetegui's side had the better exchanges at the beginning of the match, bringing to bear their impressive run of three consecutive league victories in the match. The front three of Rafa Mir, Papu Gomez and Lucas Ocampos constantly looking to catch the Barcelona defence out while former Camp Nou star, Ivan Rakitic pulled the strings from midfield.

Sevilla justifiably went ahead in the 32nd minute of the first half, scoring from a well-worked corner-kick that seems to have been perfected on the training ground. Rakitic played a low pass into the penalty box to find Gomez pulling away from the huddle of players, and the Argentine applied an exquisite finish to the far right of Marc Andre ter Stergen's post.

As the rain lashed down on Tuesday night, the Barcelona players went in search of an equaliser and it came from another corner kick. Dembele delivered a lofted kick into the penalty area for right-back Ronald Araujo to head home on the stroke of half-time.

The second half started as the first with Sevilla looking to go ahead until a Jules Kounde moment of madness saw him sent off for smashing the ball in Jordi Alba's face after an altercation in the 64th minute. Youssef En-Nesyri made a return for Sevilla after missing seven games due to injury, replacing Mir in the 70th minute.

Both sides had chances to nick the win in the second half but failed to put the ball in the back of the net again as the half petered out. While it was a fair point for Barcelona, Sevilla will be ruing missing the chance to put more pressure on Real Madrid in the race for the title.