3 takeaways from Sevilla's win over Barcelona: The Blaugrana can't convert big chances

There are days, albeit not many for a club of Barcelona's stature, when a club must accept that it wasn't meant to be.

Sevilla escaped with a somewhat inexplicable result against the Catalan outfit Saturday, producing a 2-1 win that wasn't an accurate reflection of what transpired at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan Stadium and undoubtedly triggered further alarm among the Blaugrana's supporters.

Here are three things we learned from the fixture:

An inability to finish is killing Barcelona

While credit must be given to Sevilla for its resilience, a blind eye can't be turned to just how overwhelming Barcelona was over the course of 90 minutes and its inability to convert non-penalty big chances.

Simply put, Luis Enrique's side should have won the game handily.

However, continuing a trend this season, Barcelona created plenty of opportunities but failed to make the most of them.

The contest featured no shortage of "what if" moments, highlighted by a free-kick by Neymar that clipped the post, rolled across the goal line, and somehow didn't find the back of the net before Coke forced Luis Suarez to blast a tight-angled shot off the other upright.

For an idea of just how poor Barcelona has been in front of goal this season, consider the club's conversion rate on non-penalty big chances is normally about twice as high.

No need to panic about Lionel Messi's absence

Measuring the impact of a single player is tough, even when it's Lionel Messi.

That said, Barcelona should be just fine without its fearless leader.

The Catalan club lost Messi to a ligament tear in his left knee last weekend, resulting in questions about how the team will perform without him over the next six-to-seven weeks. Unfortunately, because football supporters are incredibly reactive, Messi's absence will likely be blamed for the Blaugrana's defeat.

But that's not why they lost.

As the above chart illustrated, Barcelona had no trouble creating just as many chances as it would've with Messi on the pitch. Furthermore, as Michael Caley of the Washington Post pointed out, the club entered Saturday with a 13-0-1 record in La Liga fixtures that Messi didn't play in since 2010, tallying just as many expected goals in those matches.

Barcelona will be fine without Messi, and let's not forget Sevilla was dealing with its share of injury problems.

All streaks come to an end

Sevilla's victory brought an end to a pair of dubious streaks: it marked the first time Sevilla defeated Barcelona in La Liga in over eight years, and it ended manager Unai Emery's winless streak against the Catalan club.

Let the good times roll at Sevilla.