Sevilla achieved an important victory (2-1) in their fight to move away from the relegation places and they did so in a ‘six-point’ match against a direct rival like Almería, who arrived at the Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán stadium equal to the local team and that now remains poorly placed among the large group of teams that fight to maintain the category.
A goal from the left-back Sergio Akieme before the second minute of the game was over put the score at 0-1 in favor of Almería, but the Argentine Lucas Ocampos, already in the extension of the first half and from a penalty, managed the 1-1, while it was another Argentine, Erik Lamela, who managed the comeback in the final stretch of the second half.
With fourteen days to go before the championship ended, the event in Seville featured two teams tied on twenty-five points and both in relegation places, after Valencia overtook them in the table with Saturday’s 1-0 victory in the Mestalla stadium against Osasuna.
That result and others of the day forced Sevilla and Almería to add three if they did not want to end the week in those relegation positions, since the tie was not worth it to get out of those last places in a classification in which they are Elche off the hook.
The sevillistas, with the good taste of having beaten Turkish Fenerbahçe 2-0 on Thursday in the first leg of the Europa League round of 16, still had a very recent painful 6-1 conceded in the Atlético de Madrid field, but Almería, with very low numbers as a visitor, also faced this clash with the disappointment of 0-2 last day against Villarreal.
There were novelties in the two line-ups, as the French center-back Loïc Badé was back in the Argentine Jorge Sampaoli’s team, after overcoming an injury that occurred in mid-February, and in Joan Francesc Ferrer’s ‘Rubi’ he was a starter for the first time in this course the midfielder Arnau Puigmal.
Everything that had been planned by both coaches was disturbed before the second minute of play was up, because ex-Sevilla player Alejandro Pozo started the game as a winger on the right, taking a great cross from the baseline so that Akieme , who arrived very alone, finished off hard and low, to make it 0-1.
After the goal came a few minutes of lack of control, since Akieme himself complained of an injury and a teammate of his, the Malian striker El Bilal Touré, also, to the point that both were substituted in the twelfth minute.
The two forced changes did not seem to be too noticeable in the visiting team, which, with the score in their favour, did not lose their defensive positions on the field and also did not give up going out on occasion to surprise a rival who wanted to turn to give it back. the balance to the result.
In this struggle, the locals saw in the course of the minutes that they did not have enough resources to overcome the wall set up by the visitors, with which the precipitation and despair of Sevilla always counted in favor of the interests of Almería.
The incidents did not end in the first part and before the break the one who could not continue was the goalkeeper of the Sevillian formation, the Moroccan Yassine Bono, who in an exit exceeded half an hour came off badly and even had to leave the field on a stretcher and with a collar
With the Serbian goalkeeper Marko Dmitrovic already on the field, Sevilla increased their dominance over the goal defended by Fernando Martínez and, in the first minute of extension of the six given by the referee, Pozo awarded a penalty to left-back Alex Telles who Ocampos was in charge of transforming so that the second part began with a new tie.
At the restart it was seen that Almería wanted to propose something more and a failure in control of the ball by Joan Jordán was able to find the second soon, but the Colombian striker Luis Suárez could not solve it alone against goal Dmitrovic, a launch prior to the fourth injury of the match, now that of Sevilla’s French central defender Tanguy Nianzou, who had to give way to Bryan Gil and the locals had to rebuild their defense.
The game turned into a round trip, with a Sevilla that attacked with everything in search of their second goal and an Almería that wanted to take advantage of it to find the spaces with which to surprise again, as they could have done if they did not. Badé would have prevented under sticks and already with Dmitrovic beaten.
The one who did not forgive was Lamela very soon after and practically made his debut on the field by substituting his compatriot Ocampos ten minutes before, with which he entered the last quarter of an hour of regulation time with a 2-1 local victory.
From then until the end, the locals did not know how to define to score the third and this gave Almería options to look for a 2-2 desperately, although they never had the clarity of ideas to achieve it.
Sevilla: Bond (Dmitrovic, m.37); Jesus Navas, Bade, Nianzou (Bryan Gil, m.52), Telles (Coin, m.63); Joan Jordan, Gudelj; Suso (Oliver Torres, m.63), Rakitic, Ocampos (Lamela, m.63); and En-Nesyri.
Almeria: Ferdinand; Chumi (Baptist, m.77), Ely, Babic, Akieme (Centelles, m.12); Alexander Well, Puigmal (Port, m.60), Eguaras, Robertone; Luis Suarez and El Bilal Toure (Ramazani, m.12) (Dyego Sousa, m.77).
Goals: 0-1, M.02: Akieme. 1-1, M.47: Ocampos, penalty. 2-1, M.73: Lamella.
Referees: Ricardo de Burgos Bengoechea (Basque Country Committee). He admonished the visitors Akieme (m.11), Chumi (m.72), Ely (m.83) and Baptistao (m.87) and the locals Badé (m.32), Ocampos (m.48), Gudelj (m. .71) and Lamela (m.73).
Incidents: Match of the twenty-fifth day of LaLiga Santander played at the Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán stadium in front of 37,848 spectators, including nearly a thousand Almería supporters.
