The music stopped but the singing went on. They belted out El Arrebato acapella, Sevilla’s anthem ringing round the ground, the “oooooooooo” rising and falling. “And that’s why I’ve come here to see you today,” the chorus opens. Almost 45,000 of them had come to watch their team play Barcelona on Saturday, the stadium packed. It was just before 8pm, the teams were out, and they stretched their scarves and sang loudly. Two hours later they were singing it again, even louder now. In front of them stood a dozen footballers in white, soon joined by one in orange. On both sides of the barrier they applauded, as exhausted as they were elated.

Up in the directors’ box, Sevilla’s president Pepe Castro was beaming. “We’re delighted with this win ... ” he said, the word “win” barely out of his mouth before he corrected himself to say: “I mean, we’re delighted with this draw.” It was, they all agreed, “a draw that tasted like a win”. An 84th-minute goal from Kévin Gameiro made it 2-2 with Sevilla having trailed 2-0. At one point in the second half, the midfielder Vicente Iborra had gestured for the crowd to make even more noise; the surprise was that they managed to do so. It had already seemed stuck on full blast. And when Gameiro scored, the needle crashed through the dial and out the other side.

At the final whistle, the roar carried to the capital, 330 miles away, where Real Madrid’s fans joined in. Carlo Ancelotti didn’t: he was in the cinema, he said. But this was massive for Madrid. The draw left Sevilla level with Valencia (who play Levante on Monday night) in the final Champions League place; it also left Madrid only two points off the top. When Barcelona’s plane touched down at El Prat airport that night, Luis Suárez came down the steps and then turned back round and hurried up them again. He had left his mate behind: flask, cup, straw and all. To judge from the Catalan papers, Barcelona had left the title behind too. “It hurts,” Sergio Busquets admitted.

Both Catalan sports dailies had described this game as “half a league.” Even if Madrid won every game – and they were calling it Operation Thirty in the capital after the number of points they wanted to rack up post-clásico – they needed Barcelona to drop points twice in the remaining eight games to win the league. There would be few chances but this was one of them, perhaps the best of all. Get through it lead intact and Barcelona would have taken a huge step. 2-0 up after half an hour, with brilliant goals from Leo Messi and Neymar, Barcelona were on course, totally in control, probably their best performance of the season. “They look like Pep’s Barça” Unai Emery had said. For half an hour, they really did.

As Marca put it: “at 8.31pm, the title seemed decided.” But then Sevilla came back. Éver Banega equalised from 25 yards, Claudio Bravo punching the ball only onto the inside of the post as he dived, and with six minutes left, Gameiro got the second. The move had started with a mistake from the otherwise impeccable Gerard Piqué. “I’m sorry for tonight, but I am sure we’ll win the league,” he tweeted. In the meantime, chances had been wasted: Suárez had three of them. “No pasa nada,” insisted manager Luis Enrique. But that wasn’t entirely true, and not just because Neymar had departed furious at his substitution. Barcelona’s cushion has gone; they must now match Madrid’s results to win the title. “A championship draw,” Marca cheered. “Red alert!” ran the cover of Sport.

But that was not why they sang in Seville, even if that was the focus everywhere else, the home fans chanting: “We’ve had it up to here with Madrid and Barcelona” before the game. The good news for Barcelona may be that Madrid also have to go the Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán Stadium and that’s not going to be easy. The last time they went there, they were beaten, and they are not alone. There was a reason why the Pizjuán had been identified as the place where Barcelona might drop points; a reason why this was “half a league”, even more so than next week against Valencia, the week after at Espanyol or the penultimate week at the Calderón. Thirty-one reasons, in fact:

Real Valladolid, Real Madrid, Espanyol, Porto, Granada, Valencia, Villarreal, Elche, Valencia, Getafe, Feyenoord, Real Sociedad, Deportivo de La Coruña, Villarreal, Standard Liege, Levante Unión Deportiva, Granada, Sabadell, HNK Rijeka, Eibar, Celta de Vigo, Granada, Málaga, Espanyol, Espanyol again, Córdoba, Borussia Mönchengladbach, Atlético Madrid, Elche, Villarreal, Athletic Bilbao. And now Fútbol Club Barcelona. All of them came to the Sánchez Pizjuán to face Sevilla; none of them won. For more than a year, no one has.

The last time that Sevilla lost at home was exactly 13 months ago, to rivals Real Betis in the Europa League; seven days later, they turned the tie round away. The last team to beat them in the league had been Barcelona, back in February last year and now they have beaten them too. 24 consecutive home league games is a club record, breaking the 23-game run that straddled the 1972-73 and 1973-74 seasons – and that was in the second division. It is no fluke and no quirk of the fixture list. All 20 of the teams in La Liga have been there in that run, except Rayo Vallecano and Almería, both of whom were beaten there last season. “Invincible!” cheered the cover of Estadio Deportivo.

On Saturday Sevilla were probably closer to losing than in any of those other games. “All we could do at first was resist and try to seek a counterattack,” Banega admitted. Sevilla’s possession percentage was the lowest it has been for three years and they only had two shots on target, both of them going in and both aided by mistakes. Emery admitted that his team had been unable to play as they wanted, instead having to withstand the pressure and seek alternative ways out. But there is a line in the anthem that runs: “they say they never surrender,” and, slowly, bit by bit, they forced their way back into the game.

“Banega’s goal gave them wings,” Andrés Iniesta said. Sevilla pushed, the noise rose and forward they rolled. “In the second half we lost control; it was much more even and both teams had chances,” Luis Enrique admitted. Emery got all three substitutions right: Stéphane Mbia was extremely quick, closing space for Messi, who at first seemed shocked that he had been caught and then seemed resigned to it; José Antonio Reyes brought “illumination”, Emery said; and Gameiro scored. By the end, most agreed Sevilla had deserved something. The result had been a fair one. That it continued an incredible run said something; this was no one-off. “This is a draw that keeps our ilusión in tact and our aspirations alive,” Emery said.

Sevilla have been a curious team this season; they have not always played brilliantly but there has always been something about them. Competitive, quick and with a strong squad, well-managed and with huge support. There have been fewer full houses than previous seasons – only the Espanyol game had filled before this weekend -- but for atmosphere it’s hard to find a ground like theirs, too. “The way the Sánchez Pizjuán is, anything can happen,” injured goalkeeper Beto said at half-time on Saturday night. There’s something about them that just feels right.

Outside the big two, only Antoine Griezmann has more goals than Carlos Bacca. Gerard Deulofeu and Denis Suárez have played less than they would have liked and less than anyone expected, but few have complained. When Vitolo swapped his shirt with Neymar in the first game of the season, he joked with team-mates that maybe the Brazilian wanted it to do some dusting with. “What does he want my shirt for?” he asked. Now, he is a Spain international. And Reyes is, well, Reyes. Few players are as fun.

Emery also inverted the roles of Banega and Iborra, which he did again during the game on Saturday. He has got the best out of a difficult but wonderfully talented player, just as he eventually did at Valencia. Banega has become fundamental: no one in the team has recovered possession more, won more tackles or got more cards, while he has completed the most dribbles and the most passes. Behind him, Grzegorz Kyrchowiak has impressed enormously, and behind him Nico Pareja. Gameiro has scored more goals from the bench than anyone else.

In the summer, Sevilla lost Alberto Moreno, Federico Fazio and Ivan Rakitic. This weekend he was back for the first time. His wife is from Seville and his daughter was born there. “He sings her to sleep with El Arrebato,” Coke Andújar, his former team-mate, said. In the Barcelona dressing room, his nickname is Sevillano. Late on Saturday night, his team-mates boarded the bus to the airport but instead of heading out the metal gate with them, he turned right and down the passageway inside the stadium that was once his and became his again this weekend, staying in city for the night.

“The day I was presented I was already thinking about this game,” Rakitic had admitted before the match. After it, as his team-mates trudged down the tunnel, he joined the Sevilla players in applauding the fans, one coloured kit in with the white. For a moment the supporters broke from singing the anthem and sang his name instead. A huge banner was held up. ‘This will always be your home. Thank you, Captain,’ it said. Rakitic approached the north end to give them his shirt; he ended up giving them his boots and socks too, heading back with them still chanting his name.

Sevilla’s official twitter thanked him too. Their captain and most important player, he had reached double figures for goals and assists last season and ended his career at the Pizjuán lifting the Europa League trophy. His departure was a huge blow, even if the €16m profit helped. Yet now, without him, they might lift the trophy again.

Sevilla are still in the Europa League, the last champions ever to be expected to defend their title. Next year, they hope to leave it behind entirely. “Why do people seem to be fearful of talking about the Champions League?” Unai Emery was asked. Fear? “There’s no fear at all,” he replied. What there is, he said, is hope, enthusiasm, enjoyment, all of it reinforced by this result. That’s why they came to see them. Sevilla are level with the final Champions League place and have never reached this stage with so many points, while the Sánchez Pizjuán has never gone so long without a defeat.

“Hope is one of the nicest things in football,” Emery said. “We want to keep the flame alive.”

Talking points

• Rayo Vallecano were 1-0 up after 22 seconds at Celta Vigo ... and lost 6-1. It could have been more too. Santi Mina got four, aged 19, the youngest player ever to do so. “We were extraordinary for 89 minutes,” said manager Eduardo Berizzo.

• “We took a step towards the summit we want to reach,” said new Almería manager Sergi Barjuan after his side’s 3-0 win over Granada.

• “Fly Emirates versus Servando Ironmongers”. That’s how El País’s Pepe Sámano summed up Real Madrid v Eibar at the Santiago Bernabéu. Afterwards, Gaizka Garitano was asked about his side’s 3-0 defeat to a Madrid “B” team. “B?” he asked. “Cristiano Ronaldo ... and Varane, Ramos, Isco ... they don’t have a bad B team.” Ronaldo scored his 38th goal of the season but that’s not the stat. The stat is this and it is mind-blowing: he could now go 400 games without scoring for Real Madrid and he would still have a better goal per game ratio than Raúl, the club’s all-time leading scorer.

• Speaking of stats, there was another assist for Real’s Álvaro Arbeloa, his fifth of the season. That’s five more than Iniesta.

• This week’s best goal was Chory Castro’s belting Van Basten-esque volley against Depor, as Real Sociedad drew 2-2 at home with the team being coached for the first time Víctor, this season’s thirty-third manager.

• More numbers and these ones really will confuse you. Or at least, they confused them. Atlético managed to start Saturday’s 2-2 draw with Málaga with both centre-backs wearing the same number.

• Hankies, whistles, sarcastic applause, tears and recriminations. Córdoba.

Results:

Real Madrid 3-0 Eibar

Málaga 2-2 Atlético Madrid

Sevilla 2-2 Barcelona

Almería 3-0 Granada

Celta Vigo 6-1 Rayo Vallecano

Getafe 1-1 Villarreal

Espanyol 1-0 Athletic Bilbao

Real Sociedad 2-2 Deportivo

Córdoba 0-2 Elche

Monday night: Valencia v Levante