Sporting Gijón 1 - Sevilla 0

Sporting: Lafuente; Sastre, Gerard, Iván Hernández, Canella; Michel, Camacho; Maldonado (Raúl Cámara 34'), Carmelo (Matabuena 83'), Diego Castro; Bilic (Barral 62'). 4-2-3-1.
Sevilla: Palop; Crespo, David Prieto, Escudé, Dragutinovic; Duscher (Renato 67'), Fazio; Jesús Navas, Romaric (Kanouté 46'), Diego Capel; Chevantón (Acosta 58'). 4-2-3-1.

Team changes: Sporting: Sastre, Gerard, Iván Hernández, Michel, Maldonado, Diego Castro, Bilic for Raúl Cámara, Jorge, Neru, Matabuena, Pedro, Kike Mateo, Barral / Sevilla: Crespo, David Prieto, Duscher, Fazio, Jesús Navas, Chevantón for Fernando Navarro, Squillaci, Adriano, Renato, Luis Fabiano, Kanouté.

Goals:
1-0. 17. Diego Castro. Steered header down past Palop from Carmelo's cross.

Yellow cards: Escudé 05', Camacho 06', Carmelo 62' / red cards: Canella 28'.

Third placed Sevilla slipped six points behind Real Madrid after losing 1-0 to Sporting Gijón in the last match of the weekend. With a cup semi-final coming up midweek, Manuel Jiménez rested some of his key players. The Asturians had no such problems though after being knocked out of the competition a few days ago, and Manolo Preciado brought back his best players. Within six minutes they had a penalty after Escudé handled in the area, and although Palop saved Bilic's spot kick, Diego Castro headed Carmelo's cross past the keeper with just over a quarter of an hour gone to open the scoring.

Sporting were left with ten men though shortly before half time when Canella was sent off for a hard tackle on Diego Castro, and Sevilla smelled blood. Chevantón fired a shot over the top and Lafuente had to save from Navas and Chevantón before the half time whistle, and the newly signed keeper made a string of saves in the second half as well. Navas hit the post late on, but that was the closest they got to scoring as the home side picked up three vital points. It was too much though for Preciado and his assistant coach, who were both shown red cards before the end.