| First Division - Day 2 | |
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Villarreal 1 - Sevilla 1 Villarreal: Viera;
Kromkamp, Quique Alvarez, Gonzalo Rodríguez, Arruabarrena (Sorín
46'); Josico (Figueroa 69'), Tacchinardi; Cazorla, Riquelme (Héctor Font
25'), José Marí; Diego Forlán,. 4-2-3-1. Team changes: Villarreal: Viera, Tacchinardi, Cazorla for Barbosa, Marcos Senna, Sorín / Sevilla: David Prieto, Maresca, Adriano for Sergio Ramos, Jesús Navas, Antonio López. Goals: Villarreal and Sevilla both appeared to have their minds on their midweek European commitments as they played out a 1-1 draw in the Madrigal stadium. Local manager Pellegrini left several of his first choice players on the bench, but then lost Riquelme to an injury in the first half. His side were pushed back right from the start though, and only a series of top class saves from Viera kept the scores level. The new goalkeeper kept out three efforts from Maresca and another from Kanouté, but could do nothing when Kanouté headed a long ball into the path of Adriano for him to poke home the opening goal shortly before the break. Sevilla should have gone further ahead before half time though when Kepa fell under a challenge from Arruabarrena, but Kanouté placed the resulting penalty wide. Diego Forlán fired a free kick against the outside of the post after the restart, but substitute Saviola could have scored at the other end had his effort not been blocked by the defence. Let off the hook, the locals equalised a quarter of an hour from the end when Figueroa picked up a pass from Cazorla and beat Palop with a shot on the turn. Viera came out of his area to save bravely from Kanouté soon afterwards, and the hosts had to hold on for the last few minutes with ten men after Tacchinardi was sent off for a hard tackle on Martí. |
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