Sevilla FC traveled to the Spanish capital on Saturday taking on Xabi Alonso’s Real Madrid in their final match of La Liga this year. The hosts won comfortably scoring twice and keeping a clean sheet to a Sevilla side who went down to ten men in the 68′ minute. Sevilla coached by Matias Almeyda, have now been unable to beat Los Blancos for their past 14 matchups in the Spanish topflight. The last time they beat them was back in 2018 at home in the Estadio Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán.
But there was hope for Almeyda’s men. Madrid had been struggling at the back in recent games, failing to keep a clean sheet in eight of their last ten fixtures. On top of that they are heavily dependent on the scoring prowess of their French superstar, Kylian Mbappé. Madrid’s number 10 is leading the La Liga scoring charts having bagged 17 goals in as many matches. Their next highest scorer is Vinicius Junior, who has only managed five so far and who now has been unable to find the back of the net for the past 15 matches.
Simultaneously, Alonso’s squad has also been dependent on stand out performances from their veteran shot stopper Thibaut Courtois. The Belgian has kept a clean sheet in 7 games, the most in La Liga. A record he currently shares with Villareal’s Luiz Júnior and Espanyol’s Marko Dmitrovic. He proved important again this game with big saves keeping a clean shete.
Even though Sevilla set up with five defenders they still looked dangerous going forward. Winning the ball when Madrid’s roaming midfielders: Jude Bellingham and Arda Güler would receive the ball. Which seemed to work with them creating two big chances within ten first ten minutes. But as the age old saying goes if you don’t finish your chances your opponent will. And it started to feel as if this would be one of those games for Almeyda’s squad as Alexis Sánchez slipped before he could pull the trigger at the edge of the box which would have given his team the lead.
The crowd went ballistic after Sevilla center back Marcao only received a yellow after a studs up challenge on Rodrygo. But then seconds later they erupted again after the free kick awarded after the challenge was headed into the far corner by Jude Bellingham. Madrid seemed to spring into gear after they took the lead. But Sevilla were not backing down, they were looking to pull this game back when misery struck in 68th’ minute. As Marcao received his second yellow card Sevilla’s squad went down to ten men.
From there on Madrid were able to take advantage of their extra man, controlling the game easily. The nail in the coffin was an 85th’ minute penalty won by Rodrygo who was cutting into the box. Who else but the birthday boy himself Kylian Mbappé, stepped up to convert the penalty, doubling the score for his team and extending his goal tally to a total of 18 so far in the Spanish top flight.
What’s next?
Sevilla host bottom of the league Levante in the new year on Sunday January 4th. That Sunday Madrid will host sixth place Real Betis at the Bernabéu.
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