Araujo on Sevilla draw, Barça's lack of goals & fight for the top four

Barcelona defender Ronald Araujo was happy with the performance in Tuesday's 1-1 draw with Sevilla despite leaving with just one point instead of three.

Araujo scored the Barça equaliser, cancelling out Papu Gomez's opener, but Xavi Hernandez's side couldn't go on to win the game despite playing against 10 men for the final half an hour after Jules Kounde's red card.

"We've taken a step forward," Araujo told Movistar. "We played well against a difficult side in Sevilla. We deserved more because we were better in the second half.

"There were good spells in the first half, too, so it's a shame we switched off a little for their goal. We're on the right path."  

Ousmane Dembele hit the post late on and Jordi Alba, Gavi and Luuk de Jong also had chances but Barça once again paid for failing to take their chances.

"We're working on that [scoring more]," Araujo added. "There are young players like Ferran [Jutgla] who are doing a great job. We're a bit short of goals to kill these games off. We're working on it and hope to correct it in the second half of the season."  

Barça would have moved fourth with a win but, instead, remain seventh going into the brief winter break in Spain.

"It's good to be close to the top four after the year we've had, getting knocked out of the Champions League, losing to Real Betis, the draw with Osasuna..." Araujo said.

"It's not been a very good start to the season but to be close says that we're on the right track. Being up there is the objective."