Barcelona’s unexpected loss to Sevilla drops the Spanish champions two points behind Real Madrid on La Liga ladder.

Sevilla thrashed Barcelona 4-1 on Sunday, ending the champions’ unbeaten start in La Liga and denying them an opportunity to return to the top of the table.

The Andalusian club’s first league win over Barcelona since 2015 lifted them to sixth in the standings with 13 points from eight matches. Barcelona remained second with 19 points, two below leaders Real Madrid.

“It’s one of the happiest days of my life. We deserved to win from start to finish,” said Jose Angel Carmona, who scored Sevilla’s third goal.

Barcelona made a muted start and had no shots on target in the first half an hour, while Sevilla probed early on, looking to unleash Alexis Sanchez with long balls.

Sevilla took the lead in the 13th minute, after Isaac Romero went down while jostling for the ball with Ronald Araujo near Barcelona’s six-yard box, and the referee awarded a penalty to Sevilla after taking a look at the VAR replay.

Sanchez sent former Arsenal teammate Wojciech Szczesny the wrong way to convert the spot kick.

Szczesny stopped Sevilla from doubling their lead in the 27th minute, saving Romero’s shot from inside the box.

Romero, however, doubled Sevilla’s lead 10 minutes later, as Ruben Vargas sprinted past Barcelona’s high defensive line to chase down a through ball near the box, and crossed to the Spanish forward who dispatched a first-time finish.

Marcus Rashford reduced the deficit for Barcelona late in added time before the break, hammering Pedri’s lobbed pass into the net from a tight angle with his left foot.

Lewandowski misses penalty

Barcelona pushed forward in the second half and were handed an opportunity to equalise when Adnan Januzaj brought down Alejandro Balde in the box, but Robert Lewandowski fired wide from the penalty spot in the 76th minute.

The visitors’ hopes of salvaging a point ended in the 90th minute when Carmona shot through a defender’s legs to find the net and put Sevilla 3-1 ahead.

Second-half substitute Akor Adams made it 4-1 five minutes into added time, scoring from Chidera Ejuke’s pass.

“We lacked intensity, we couldn’t get the ball out of our half, we didn’t know what to do with the ball … we were never at our best,” Barcelona midfielder Pedri said.

“We need to improve a lot of things so that we can start winning games again after the break.”

Sevilla, who have won two games in a row, will continue their league campaign after the international break against Mallorca on October 18, the same day Barcelona host Girona.