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First Division - Day 37

Sevilla 2 - Almería 1

Sevilla: Sergio Rico; Diogo Figueiras, Arribas (Iago Aspas 58‘), Kolodziejczak, Fernando Navarro (Trémoulinas 57‘); M’Bia, Banega; Denis Suárez, Iborra, Reyes (Vitolo 76’); Gameiro. 4-2-3-1.
Almería: Rubén; Michel Macedo, Ximo Navarro (Trujillo 17’), Mauro Dos Santos, Dubarbier; Corona (Azeez 64‘), Thomas; Wellington Silva (Hemed 74‘), Jonathan Zongo, Espinosa; Thievy. 4-2-3-1.

Goals:
0-1. 30. Thievy. Fired shot past Sergio Rico after Zongo crossed from left of area.
1-1. 65. Iborra. Turned ball past Rubén after Mauro failed to clear Diogo cross.
2-1. 71. Iborra. Struck shot wide of keeper after Iago Aspas centre deflected to him.

Yellow cards: Corona 60’, Rubén 68’, Thomas 73’, Dubarbier 83’ / red cards: Trujillo 75’.

Sevilla still have a chance of pipping Valencia for fourth Champions League place after they came from behind to beat Almería 2-1, the result closing the gap to one point with one game to go. Visiting keeper Rubén did well to block an early shot from Gameiro, but with half an hour on the clock Thievy connected with Jonathan Zongo’s cross to give the Andalusians the lead. Soon after the restart Zongo fired an acrobatic shot against the foot of the post, and minutes later Sergio Rico had to save from Thievy. However some twenty minutes into the second half Iborra levelled the scores after Figueiras played a long Banega centre back across goal, and just six minutes after that Iborra got his second of the night after a Iago Aspas centre deflected to him. With a quarter of an hour to go Almería were left with ten men when Trujillo was sent off for bringing down Gameiro as he advanced on goal, and Vitolo and Gameiro came close to increasing the lead later on. The defeat leaves Sergi Barjuan’s team down in the bottom three, and they now need to win against Valencia in their last match to have any hope of escaping the drop. However they could of course be down earlier if the CAS uphold FIFA’s three point deduction when they meet next Wednesday. Sevilla meanwhile keep up the push for that Champions League spot, although they have a second option to make it into the top European competition after they won through to the Europa League final mid-week.

P.S. The CAS have put off the decision about Almería’s three point deduction until next week, and the club therefore remain on 32 points going into their last match against Valencia. If they don’t win that though they will definitely finish in the bottom three, although with Elche and Getafe also facing possible relegation if they can’t settle their debts with the tax authorities in the next couple of weeks or so, it looks like the final decision on who stays up and who goes down will not be known until well after the season has finished.