BARCELONA: Red-hot Robert Lewandowski and Pablo Torre struck twice each as Barcelona hammered Sevilla 5-1 on Sunday to stay three points clear of Real Madrid at the top of La Liga ahead of next weekend’s Clasico.
Los Blancos beat Celta Vigo on Saturday to pull level with Hansi Flick’s side but Barca swiftly restored their advantage with a dominant display of attacking football.
Veteran striker Lewandowski reached 12 goals in 10 La Liga matches, his strikes sandwiching Pedri Gonzalez’s effort from the edge of the box, before substitute Torre added the fourth.
Stanis Idumbo grabbed a consolation for Sevilla in the final stages but Francisco Garcia Pimienta’s side were roundly beaten on his return to the club he spent nearly three decades with in various roles.
Torre finished the rout with a crossed free-kick which flew beyond Nyland and in at the far post.
Despite upcoming clashes against Bayern Munich in the Champions League and Saturday’s visit to the Santiago Bernabeu, Hansi Flick started arguably his strongest fit and available side.
The coach was able to name Dani Olmo, Fermin Lopez and Gavi on the bench after injury, the latter sidelined since November 2023 following a knee operation.
Ansu Fati started for the first time this season after Eric Garcia felt discomfort in the warm-up, with Raphinha shifting into a central attacking midfield position.
Lamine Yamal, starting after recovering from a minor hamstring strain which saw Spain release him from international duty early, curled off target early on after a spritely burst past two Sevilla players.
The Catalans took the lead when Raphinha went down in the box under light contact from Peque, a former Barca youth player, and the referee pointed to the spot.
Lewandowski, stuttering in his run-up, sent Sevilla goalkeeper Orjan Nyland the wrong way to fire Barca ahead.
The 36-year-old striker is enjoying a second wind under Flick and leads Spain’s scoring charts with 12 strikes in 10 matches, twice as many as any other player.
Pedri soon doubled Barcelona’s lead from the edge of the box after the active Yamal set him up. The teenage Spain star then threaded through Lewandowski but Nyland made a fine save to deny him.
Polish veteran Lewandowski netted his second before the break by guiding home Raphinha’s drive from distance with a flick of his boot.
Suffering Sevilla were dealt more bad news before the break when explosive winger Chidera Ejuke limped off injured.
Raphinha fired home early in the second half but was offside, as Barcelona strolled, carving open the Andalucians at their leisure.
Yamal produced an outrageous shot from distance with the outside of his boot which Nyland clawed to safety.
Dodi Lukebakio struck at the other end on a rare Sevilla forray forward but had strayed offside.
Barca midfielder Pablo Torre rattled home the fourth with the aid of a deflection before Gavi made his first appearance in 11 months as a substitute with a few minutes remaining to a rapturous reception.
Idumbo pulled one back for Sevilla but Torre wrapped up Barcelona’s night with a stroke of fortune when his free-kick crept in at the far post.

LIVERPOOL: Liverpool are looking more and more like Manchester City’s main title rivals after beating resurgent Chelsea 2-1 on Sunday to stay top of the Premier League table.
After City needed an injury-time header from John Stones to beat last-placed Wolves 2-1 in the early kickoff, Liverpool answered with a composed performance at Anfield to hand Chelsea their first league loss since the opening round.
Having seen third-placed Arsenal lose at Bournemouth on Saturday to raise questions about the Gunners’ title hopes, Liverpool and City took full advantage to build a small gap atop the standings. Arne Slot’s team leads on 21 points from eight games, one ahead of City and four above Arsenal.
It was Slot’s most significant win at Anfield so far and prevented Chelsea from moving into third place, with the visitors remaining sixth instead.
“Many other games were hard but this might have been the hardest maybe, because of the amount of quality players they (Chelsea) have and the structure they have,” Slot said. “We had to fight really hard to get this one over the line.”
Curtis Jones orchestrated the win for Liverpool, earning a penalty for Mohamed Salah’s first-half opener and then scoring himself to restore the host’s lead in the 51st minute, shortly after Nicolas Jackson had equalized for Chelsea.
Jones also thought he had earned a second penalty in first-half injury time, but it was overturned after a VAR review judged that Chelsea goalkeeper Robert Sanchez got the ball before bundling over the Liverpool player.
But he capped a stellar performance by beating the offside trap to get on the end of a ball into the box from Salah and slot in the winner.
“As soon as Mo had the ball I made the run, but it bounced so I had to have a touch, and then thankfully it went in,” Jones said.
Liverpool was the last team other than City to win the title, in 2019-20, and pushed Pep Guardiola’s team to the very end several times under Jurgen Klopp before finishing just fifth two years ago and a distant third last season.
In Slot’s first season in charge, though, the Reds are looking like credible challengers again and have now won 10 of 11 games in all competitions.
And City are looking far from unbeatable, needing another last-gasp goal from Stones to avoid a third league draw in four games against a Wolves team that only has one point so far.
It also needed a VAR intervention for the goal to stand, as referee Chris Kavanagh was called to the sideline monitor to review whether Bernardo Silva was interfering with goalkeeper Jose Sa from an offside position.
“We are not used to winning games at the end,” said Guardiola, whose team has won four straight league titles by regularly overwhelming most opponents. “It is a good flavor for us.”
It also extended City’s unbeaten streak to a club-record 31 league games, beating a mark Guardiola’s team had set in 2018.
With prolific striker Erling Haaland held scoreless for a third straight league game, City’s defenders provided the goals instead after Jorgen Strand Larsen had given the hosts a surprising early lead in the seventh minute.
Josko Gvardiol curled in a superb right-foot shot from outside the area to equalize in the 33rd minute but Wolves then repelled wave after wave of City attacks before the late intervention from Stones, who also netted a last-gasp equalizer against Arsenal in the eighth minute of injury time last month.
“These moments don’t come often for us,” Stones said. “We’ve come up with a few over the years and today was one of them.”