coaches

Sevilla are starting to be in a mess, and this is not a new situation, because the situation has been repeated recurrently in recent seasons. Nothing works for their coach, García Pimienta, but neither did it work for previous ones, so it does not seem to be something temporary, but systemic. They lack a lot of football, some energy, and they are not even lucky. If a week ago they suffered at the Pizjuán to beat Getafe, at Mendizorroza they suffered from everything, from start to finish. From Isaac Romero’s injury before the quarter of an hour, to the consecutive blows that Alavés gave them.

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Antonio Sivera, Abdel Abqar, Aleksandar Sedlar, Manu Sanchez, Nahuel Tenaglia, Joan Jordan (Santiago Mourinho, min. 88), Stoichkov (Jon Guridi, min. 70), Ander Guevara (Antonio Blanco, min. 70), Carlos Vicente, Carlos Martin (Abde Rebbach, min. 76) and Toni Martinez (Kike Garcia, min. 75)

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Ørjan Nyland, Kike Salas, Adrià Pedrosa (Valentín Barco, 65 min), Tanguy Nianzou (Loïc Badé, 69 min), José Ángel Carmona, Saúl Ñíguez, Djibril Sow (Nemanja Gudelj, 69 min), Lucien Agoumé (Chidera Ejuke, min. 65), Isaac Romero (Kelechi Iheanacho, min. 13), Dodi Lukébakio and Peque.

Goals 1-0 min. 16: Carlos Vicente. 2-0 min. 59: Carlos Martín. 2-1 min. 82: Lukebakio

Referee Javier Alberola Rojas

Yellow cards Saúl (min. 32), Adrià Pedrosa (min. 45), Loic Bade (min. 74), Guridi (min. 86), Kike Salas (min. 94)

Perhaps it is because the Vitorians are assuming their role in the League. Their expectations are clear from the start: to avoid relegation as soon as possible, and then whatever comes, and that is what they are doing. The enthusiasm of their players is contagious to the stands, or maybe it is the other way around, but on the field you see a dynamic team, fighting for every ball in a collective exercise, and which makes teams like Sevilla uncomfortable, with weak morale, and who had a hard time getting out of their half with the ball under control. The Basques found the weak points of the Andalusians.

Alavés are not too fancy. Direct football works for them, and this was immediately proven against Sevilla when, in the 17th minute, Tenaglia launched a ball from the right wing towards the area, and there Carlos Vicente put his foot in to shoot without letting it go down. The collaboration of goalkeeper Nyland was essential for the Albiazules to celebrate the first goal.

The goal left Sevilla in a catatonic state, which lost its footing for a few minutes and was on the verge of conceding another goal. Three minutes later, when Sevilla were still trying to take control of the match, Sivera launched a long ball towards the opponent’s half, Toni Martínez beat Salas to the ball and, in front of the goalkeeper, he fired hard and the ball deviated a metre from the target. With barely any time to breathe, Stoichkov managed to score, but an offside at the start of the play spoiled Mendizorroza’s party.

Sevilla did not react until the second half, and it was almost a matter of personal pride for Lukebakio, who took his team on his back and decided to become a nuisance for the Alaves defence. He single-handedly, almost without help, made the opponent uncomfortable and caused Sivera the biggest scares. The first time he looked for space in the area and his shot, which was poisonous, crashed into the back of his teammate Saúl, who was walking around there. Shortly after, another move by him ended up at the boots of Saúl who, from close range, shot for Sivera to make the save of the night.

But Sevilla’s misfortune materialised in the next play, when the long ball from the Alavés goalkeeper reached Vicente, his cross was headed by Stoichkov onto the crossbar, and the ball fell to Carlos Martín, who only had to push to double his team’s advantage. Almost sunk, beaten by the scoreline, the Sevilla players tried not to give up, to abstract themselves from the discouragement, because Alavés, in addition, did not show signs of weakness. There were many minutes left and Sevilla tried to take control of the operations. In the end, it was Lukebakio again who opened a crack for hope while the clock was already ticking down to the 82nd minute, when he received a ball at the edge of the area, looked for the gap and shot into Sivera’s top corner.