Sevilla are this season’s La Liga crisis club but perhaps a last-gasp penalty at Cádiz can turn their fortunes aroundIvan Rakitic seemed to be trying not to look up and he wasn’t listening either, not when Alejandro Hernández Hernández came for one of those pointless pep talks referees like so much. He’d taken penalties before, thank you very much. And even if his mother-in-law once sent him a picture of a labrador with a ball at its paws and the message, “your dog takes them better than you”, he’s not bad either: he had done it in the derby, rolled in at Madrid to keep Sevilla in the title race, and is the only player to be put on the...
With four sendings-off, a comical own goal and a belting late equaliser from Nemanja Gudelj, the game lived up to its billing“Well, this is a derby,” Real Betis’s Edgar González was saying, but it was hard not to be drawn to the pitch behind him where opponent Nemanja Gudelj was pacing about shaking his head. At the final whistle, the Sevilla defender had covered his face with his hands and just stood doubled over, elbows on knees. Ivan Rakitic approached and they went through it once more, although it was a wonder they could hear anything. Next was Jesús Navas, the pair picking over the moment a vital victory slipped away. Now, waiting near the touchline for his turn to...
A ‘glass jaw’ at the back and profligacy up front has left Julien Lopetegui’s side with their worst start to a season in 41 yearsCaptain Ivan Rakitic gathered his men and turned to the north. A couple of hours earlier, a banner had been hung across that end declaring “unity makes strength”, their version of the Marseillaise thundering round, and they were still singing in there now. Sevilla’s exhausted players stood before the fans, all those swirling flags, and listened. It was 11 o’clock and it was loud but the lyrics weren’t the same now and they hadn’t come to celebrate; they had come to apologise. “We had to,” Rakitic said. They had been beaten again, this time by Barcelona....
To follow PSG and Chelsea, Sevilla were the latest team to suffer from Carlo Ancelotti’s men’s powers of recoveryIn the middle of it all, someone fetched David Alaba a chair. It was late, it had been a long week, his legs were weary and everyone were making a lot of noise, but this seat was not for sitting. This was for celebrating, his thing now, and so he took it and lifted it above his head. Back by popular demand, he emulated what he had done after that absurd comeback against Paris Saint Germain, a cheer went round the dressing room and his team-mates started singing: “That’s the way Madrid win!”They had only gone and done it again, and this...
Munir El Haddadi came off the bench early to send the crowd at the Sánchez Pizjuán Stadium into a frenzy with a vital goal“I was sitting on the bench thinking: ‘Bloody hell, I’m enjoying this,’” Munir El Haddadi said, and it would only get better. He had been inside the bus as it moved slowly through the smoke on the short trip to the Sánchez Pizjuán stadium; now he was alongside the pitch, unable to sit still as his Sevilla teammates made their way through Real Betis quite a lot quicker. With the noise rising round them this was a moment to be part of and, sooner than expected, he was sprinting off in the sunshine, laughing as the substitutes...