A couple weeks ago Koné let slip a few poorly worded sentences about his old team, Sevilla (his current owners as he’s on loan to Levante), referring to a piece of his loan deal that stipulates that if he scores 18 goals this league, Sevilla can negotiate his return to Sevilla and extend his contract. “I want to score only 17 goals in order to stay with Levante. I wouldn’t leave Levante in Champions in order to play for Sevilla in Europa”.
Now, he’s since said that the above comments were poorly interpreted, he didn’t mean that, and he loves Sevilla, a team that has treated him fairly, etc etc etc. Nice recovery, but of course the situation remains that today a Sevilla team on the rise (…ish) faces a Levante team decidedly in decline, losing 4 of their last 5 and falling from first to 4th in the past month. Today, a Sevilla win will see Levante fall from CL places to the Europa, and Sevilla taking the reverse journey into 4th. In general I like Koné and have been happy for his successes this year at Levante (5 goals, second highest on the team), but yeah, I’d enjoy seeing Koné having to live with the above quote looking up at Sevilla after losing to them.
While Levante was never going to keep up their amazing start to the season, their early success wasn’t a fluke, either, and Sevilla has a very tough task at hand in taking on La Liga’s biggest surprise of the year in their house. We’ll need all hands on deck, which we’ll almost have; only Perotti is injured, and the rest of the preferred XI should be ready to go.
I like Sevilla’s chances today, but I think a low-scoring one-goal win or draw is most likely. I’ll say 1-1 as my prediction. What do you think?
Oh, and bonus clásico prediction: the filthy rich team that absurdly overspends every year will win. You can take that to the bank.
Monchi's Men 
sevilla sevilla seviiiillaaaaaa
Lineup:
Varas
Coke, Fazio, Spahic, Navarro
Medel
Navas, Trochowski, Rakitic, Manu del Moral
Negredo
This match can be considered somewhat important.
Vamos mi SEVILLA!
Vamos mi Sevilla!
Here we go!
An injury at :30 has slowed the start. Now we’re off and battling for the ball.
Some danger from Levante after a free kick. They look in the mood early.
But now I’m really liking what I’m seeing-maintaining possession and some nice moves. No end product as of yet though
HUUUYY. COOOKKEEEEEEEE. center from Navas that Coke can’t put on frame from 10 yards
HUUUUYYYYYYYYYYYY NAVAS. 12′ Manu and Rakitic work off each other very well and the pass of death goes far post through several legs. Navas misses.
Navas misses the best chance so far
Commentators can’t go one minute without mentioning El Clasico. Ugh.
I’m getting pretty annoyed by the countdown to THE GREATEST AND MOST IMPORTANT MATCH SINCE THE LAST CLASICO A FEW MONTHS AGO in the corner of my stream…
Exactly. Anyone in the world who is watching this match already knows.
Corner, Sevilla 19′
Both teams still being fairly cautious. 24′
Negredo just nearly scored one of his classic golazos…just fired wide after some amazing dribbling
HUUUUUUUYYYYY NEGREEEEEDOOOOOOO!!!!
These are the plays that make him so vital. Beats three men on a counter and his shot from 20m goes barely wide of the diving keep and post.
Koné nearly slipped behind the defense on a long ball. 26′
Some impressive flair and passing around the Levante box doesn’t amount to anything 29′
Good spell of movement in front of the box. Some near danger but not many chances to shoot. Good ball control, though. 29′
We are being active with the ball in attack (not always our strong suit) and guarding our backsides well, then pressing well when we get a chance. This bodes well. 31′
Negredo has been having lots of good touches and interplay in front of goal. Koné just beat the onside trap by a mile but his touch is off and Varas collects. 34′
HUY! Trochoooo! good work by navas leaves him a chance to blast from 18m, but it goes a little high.
Levante is keeping the ball more at the moment. We’ve had it more in the match.
Yellow for Trochowski for an elbow challenging for a ball. The commentators are not convinced. 40′
Medel defends like a man possessed. Just broke up a counter all alone by pressing the ball. 42′
HUUUYY TROCHOOO…..
Great pass by Rakitic to send Manu free down the left, his cross finds Trocho who settles on the run and volleys, but it bounces high into the keeper’s hands. 44′
1 minute left.
Free kick and now corner for Levante to close the half.
HT. Juanlu dives for a penalty and earns a yellow. Navarro also gets a stupid yellow for asking for what was a clear yellow-for-diving situation. UGH.
HT. And much more importantly only 3 hours 12 minutes until EL CLASICO!!!
boooooooo : )
Sevilla has had more chances and more possession, but Levante has looked threatening on a couple of occasions – mostly with Koné getting behind the defense.
this is the most midfield play I’ve seen in a while from Sevilla…Rak looks in form.
Agreed. Maybe not top form, but he’s been on the ball as much as anyone else this half, and it’s been a good and varied half creatively.
Good first half. Our defense was pretty solid. I’ll cosign Aaron’s comment on Medel, he’s a beast! We’re creating decent chances. I’m hoping we could get the ball to Navas more in the 2nd half. “Iván” is playing great so far.
A loose elbow from a Levante player catches most of Rakitic’s head. He’s been down for a couple minutes. Now being helped off. No yellow
Kone goes down in the area after beating Navarro down the right. Not even a touch on him by Spahic. Boooooo, Koné. Poor form.
OMG HUUUUUUYYYYYYYYYYYYYY
HOW DID WE NOT SCORE?
Manu blasts from 20m and well saved, Negredo saves the rebound to Trocho who volleys from 8m. Blocked point blank by the keep. Unbelievable. 51′
gol levante.
incredibly ridiculous goal.
TOTALLY RIDICULOUS.
Negredo and Varas stand there, after blocking a header off a corner. They stand there looking at the ball at their feet. For at least one whole second the ball just sits there while they try to decide who is going to clear it or grab it (in varas’ case). A levante player pounces on it in that time of ridiculous indecision. What the FUCK.
I have no idea how you recover from something like that.
Yellow for Ballesteros for raking at Negredo’s feet. Obvious.
Kanouté on for Coke. 63′
Interesting.
Taking Coke out has significantly stretched our back line. 68′
Trochowski off for Campaña. 68′
Kanouté would fit right in with Levante’s 30+ crowd, but we’re glad he’s still with us. Not much danger created by us now as Levante is just sitting back after our gift. 73′
It’s not looking great for a team that had controlled the ball and created several chances early on and was dominating this half until a mindless error. 77′
Manu centers for Kanouté to head the ball from 6m. It’s a goal every other time. Not this time – straight at the keeper’s hands, which made up about 1% of the face of goal.
HUUUY NEGREDOOOOO. 80′
Again with a shot from the top of the area and AGAIN it curls just wide (and this time, high).
Armenteros comes in for Rakitic. 81′
Levante is taking a year to take every throw in, now.
Juanfran gets shot in the back on a counter challenging for a ball with Kanoute. No contact. The ref falls for it.
Spahic misses ANOTHER EASY HEADER this time from 3m. unfuckingbelievable. this is not our day. 85′
so frustrated!
Kanoute pirouetting through the Levante defense. Beautiful. 87′
It’s been a really great match, I must say. Good football today. I am a Levante fan but for 180 minutes of the year.
Three extra minutes. Expect Levante to use them all on this throw in.
We’ll going to fall 5 points behind CL places.
This free kick for Levante will take the last 45 seconds
*sigh*
to lose on a play like that is just frustrating as hell!
FT. Frustrating loss to Levante, who had far fewer opportunities. Sevilla showed they are indeed on the way back and, if not for some unfortunate saves/misses in front of the Levante goal, and without the biggest brain fart ever in front of our own, could have just as easily won 0-3.
Bludklat!>:O
When last did we win 3 in a row?