Alavés 0 - Sevilla 1

Alavés: Herrera; Kanu, Coloccini, Téllez, Llorens; Turiel (Ibon Begoña 55'), Pablo; Astudillo, Jordi Cruyff (Karmona 70'), Magno (Witschge 83'); Rubén Navarro. 4-2-3-1.
Sevilla: Notario; Njegus, Javi Navarro, Pablo Alfaro, David; Gallardo (Alfonso 90'), Casquero, Francisco, Tomás; Reyes (Víctor Sales 65'), Moisés (Prieto 92'). 4-4-2.

Team changes: Alavés: Jordi Cruyff, Magno for Mara, Ibon Begoña / Sevilla: Francisco, Tomás for Podestá, Fredi.

Goals:
0-1. 84. Casquero. Shot which deflected in off Pablo after Gallardo laid ball back.

Leaders Alavés were surprisingly beaten 0-1 by Sevilla, their first home defeat in three months, and they drop down the table to third. The match was played in sub-zero temperatures, although ground staff were able to clear away the snow which hit many areas in Spain the day before. Mané decided not to risk Geli, just recovered from injury, and Kanu kept his place, with Jodri Cruyff back after an injury and Magno returning from a one match ban. Sevilla were missing the injured Podestá and the suspended Fredi, and Francisco and Tomás came in to replace them. It was a hard match throughout, with debutant referee Pino Zamorano struggling to keep up with the action. There were hard tackles from both sides, with Gallardo going off to get treatment for a bloody nose after clashing with Llorens, and in the end Téllez got his marching orders after catching Víctor with a loose elbow only minutes after he had replaced Reyes midway through the second half.

On the footballing front it was even-Steven, with Jordi forcing a couple of good saves out of Notario early on, and Moisés having a goal disallowed by Pino for offside before the break. The only goal came six minutes from the end through Casquero with a shot which took a deflection off Pablo after Witschge had lost the ball. Knowing that they had thrown away a victory last week against Bilbao in the last minute Sevilla were not going to make the same mistake twice, and their players upset the local fans (and some of the players) with their blatant time wasting tactics as they ran the clock down in the final minutes. Their first victory in the Mendizorroza stadium takes them up to ninth, and for the fifth time of asking Mané finds himself frustrated by a side who are rapidly becoming one of his bogey teams.