Seville | Sevilla's punch is worth more than three 'kilos'

Sevilla closed their participation in the group stage of the Champions League beating Rennes thanks to their effectiveness in attack. When those of Lopetegui were having the worst, the isolated actions of Koundé and En Nesyri appeared, twice, to forget the consecutive defeats against Chelsea and Real Madrid and, incidentally, give air to the club's accounts with the money received from the win.

There were not too many surprises in the starting eleven. Lopetegui rotated, logically, but taking into account the players he had, only three of the starting theorists stayed on the bench: Fernando, Ocampos and De Jong. In defense, he opted for the logical thing in the absence of full-backs in the call and aligned the four centrals displaced to French lands.

The entrance to the game of Sevilla was horrible. Those of Lopetegui were not able to give two passes in a row due to pressure from Rennes, turning the ball over and over with long balls. Niang had the goal in his boots in the eighth minute but missed a loose ball at the penalty spot. Nzonzi and Camavinga had become owners of the center of the field and the matter looked more than ugly for Sevilla. If there was a desire to vindicate after what happened against Chelsea, they were very well camouflaged.

The left side of the Sevilla defense was a freeway through which the Rennes volides struck over and over again. Rekik was constantly outmatched without receiving much help from Idrissi either. A saving hand from Bono again denied the goal to a desperate Niang half an hour into a duel in which the best for Sevilla was that the scoreboard had not yet moved.

And it moved, it did move, but as no one would have expected it seen it. A corner taken short by Sevilla from the right ended on the left, from where Rekik took a cross without apparent danger but that Rennes could not clear. The ball was bouncing on the front, where Koundé emerged making a strange shot with the left that slipped into the Rennes goal, drawing an impossible parable for Salin.

Rennes was more than touched. Stéphan's men were falling apart as Sevilla became more and more comfortable with the ball. Suso began to appear, also Rakitic and, above all, Óliver Torres. The faith and quality of the Extremaduran led him to make a superb move down the left wing, from where he took a great center that En Nesyri finished off with a foreshortening of a pure center forward, from another era.

The second half didn't have any kind of story in its first 30 minutes. Sevilla controlled without reaching the opposite area and Rennes seemed to have lost interest in the game. But the movements from the French team's bench generated harassment and demolition against Bono's goal. The Moroccan goalkeeper scared away all the doubts that his negative return to Real Madrid generated. He covered his goal and again, when Rennes was better, the newly entered Oscar saw En Nesyri uncheck and the striker sealed his double crossing with the left.

Even the VAR was encouraged at the end of the game to notify the referee that the foul on Camavinga that he had signaled outside the area had been inside. The more the replay was watched, the less missing the action seemed, but the referee decided to point out the maximum penalty and Rutter transformed it, although without deceiving Bono. It was the last thing that happened in the closing of the group stage of the Champions for a Seville that hit hard to win and put more than three million in their coffers.