Sevilla beat Villarreal and are hooked back to the Real Madrid chase after retaining a minimal advantage throughout the second part, turned into a survival exercise for Lopetegui’s team. Emery’s besieged to his rival in the final stretch of the match but without hitting, almost without auction, and not only are they almost definitely (15 points) away from the Sevilla players in the table: if certain results are given in the rest of this day, the yellow ones could even stay close to the drop stations.
Villarreal’s strange qualifying situation is perfectly understood just by watching the First Videos goal, with an empty goal, which Gerard Moreno missed, none other than him. Emery took out the Spanish international at halftime so that the decoration changed completely. Sevilla had had more the ball and clear chances in the first half, Lopetegui’s team able to score thanks to the Argentine Acuña-Ocampos connection. The winger, who has scored five goals in the last five games, solved another one of those silly turnovers at the start that is costing Castellón so expensive, along with the lack of punch, this season. In Bergamo, next week, those flaws would leave him without going to the knockout stages of the Champions League.
Villarreal had already threatened in the center, but Alcacer was faulty at the controls, and he tried to strike with a string of offensive substitutions in an attempt to find breadth and depth. But almost always it was dissolved in the area, without auction. Sevilla, who had been annulled in the first half by another goal by Rafa Mir for offside, He knew how to give and resist while trying to kill the match against. Now he will travel to Salzburg, where he must win, with morale but probably without Acuña. The Argentine added a long list of injured (Navas, En-Nesyri, Lamela, Suso) that each day Lopetegui and Monchi are more concerned.
Changes
Gerard Moreno (45 ‘, Moi Gómez), Delaney (56′, Rakitic), Boulaye Dia (61′, Trigueros), Augustinsson (62 ‘, Marcos Acuña), Chukwueze (71′, Yeremy Pino), Stupiñán (72 ‘, Alfonso Pedraza), Munir (79 ‘, Papu Gómez), Oliver Torres (79 ‘, Lucas Ocampos)
Goals
1-0, 15′: Lucas Ocampos
Cards
Referee: Carlos del Cerro Grande
VAR Referee: Ignacio Iglesias Villanueva
Rakitic (47 ‘, Yellow) Rafa Mir (56 ‘, Yellow) Albiol (60 ‘, Yellow) Boulaye Dia (91 ‘, Yellow