From the football filled night we had in the middle of the week, the best thing had to best thing had to be Ivan Rakitic, pulling off a backheel chapeu in his own half to get rid of his marker, Pepe, before breaking clear into the counter attack and setting up teammate Carlos Bacca for what turned out to be the winning goal for Sevilla against Real Madrid.

And aside from all the fantastic defending we saw from Sevilla players, not allowing Cristiano Ronaldo his usual space on the left side which made him move to the middle where he got completely lost, Rakitic was also the man of the match.

It’s hard being the one creative player, solely responsible for production on a team looking mostly to defend. It means that you need to make something of the few chances you do get. The first Sevilla goal came from a terrible Xabi Alonso mistake, resulting in Reyes setting up Bacca for the first goal.

But while Rakitic put on only one assist on the stat chart, his performance was so much more, creating the few dangers Sevilla did manage to present in the match with some excellent dribbling and passing skills in a performance that was much more than hard working.

It’s been a while since Sevilla have been able to beat Real Madrid at home in front of their fans, but they have their own goals this season. They’re still six points behind Athletic Bilbao but have a firmer grasp of the fifth spot, putting them in Europe at the end of the season. While they might draw some joy from ruining Real Madrid’s title chances or at least denting them, there’s more to this win than just playing spoliers.

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