Sevilla 2 Real Madrid 0

After the disappointment of Wednesday night, Sevilla were up against their 2nd Madrid challenge in 4 days. This time La Liga Champions Real Madrid rolled into Andalusia fresh of the back of a 5-1 mauling of Valencia midweek.

Sevilla welcomed back Kanoute, but Jose Crespo stayed at left back in place of Dragutinovic who moved into central defence with Fazio.

As usual Sevilla were first out of the traps and after only 2 minutes Luis Fabiano rattled the ball off the legs of Casillas from 8 yards out. Daniel played a lovely ball over the Madrid defence and Kanouted headed on for Fabiano, but his shot was blocked.

Real came into the game, but didn't really trouble Palop in the opening stages, and just when it looked like Sevilla were running out of ideas, up popped Keita from 25 yards out. Casillas was helpless as the ball swerved away from his outstreched glove. Great goal from the new signing. To be honest, Keita was given an awful lot of time by the Madrid defence to set himself up for the shot, but nothing should be taken away from the finish itself.

Madrid looked stunned, but before they could even fashion a chance Kanoute rushed through the middle after a long ball was played into his path. After expertly controlling the ball, Kanoute tested Casillas. The shot was too hot to handle, and Fabiano beat Cannavaro to the loose ball to sweep the ball home from 6 yards.

Sevilla 2 Real Madrid 0 - only 21 minutes on the clock.

From then on in the game got ugly. On 35 Minutes Fazio was replaced by Mosquera in what only could have meant an injury to the big defender. I didn't see what happened, but hopefully I will find out soon.

Real seemed determined to injure as many players as possible. First up was left midfielder Adriano. His attempt to chase back after losing the ball resulting in him winning the ball from Guti. However, Adriano took an elbow to the face for his trouble, and had to leave the field for a while with a bloody nose.

40 minutes on the clock and Crespo was the next in line for rough treatment. An elbow from Diarra (I think it was) seemed to pierce the skin on his cheek and the swelling was so bad he had to go off. Hopefully it is not a broken cheek bone.

Jimenez threw on Capel in place of the injured Crespo, with Adriano moved to left back, and Capel left wing. Not surprisingly, it took only a few seconds before Capel felt the force of Madrid's tackling. Twice in the space of a few moments the youngester hit the deck. The game was threatening to boil over and it wasn't helped when Ramos kicked Keita off the park as Keita shielded the ball for a throw in. The big midfielder lost his cool for a moment and pushed Ramos, with Ramos returning a hand around Keita's throat. The referee booked both players for their actions. Keita can have no complaints, but you can understand his anger.

The first half ended with whistles ringing around the stadium for the referee. The fans obviously felt more protection should be shown to Sevilla players, and I tend to agree. The referee seemed to have taken this to heart and within 5 minutes of the restart he booked Robinho and Ramos for the 2nd time. The big defender heading off the pitch to the joy of the home crowd. It was an uphill battle all the way for Real as it was, which was made harder by the stupidity of Ramos.

The 2nd half didn't match the excitment of the 1st half, and I actually missed some of it due to a long distance phone call from an old friend. I did notice however that there was a booking for Capel and Drago. Real picked up a couple of more yellows. This time for Raul, Balboa, Guti and Diarra.

Final score SEVILLA 2 REAL MADRID 0

an excellent score against the Champions. Our league form does not look in doubt at home, but points must be picked up away from home from now on.

Line up:

GK - Palop
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RB - Daniel Alves
LB - Crespo > Capel 41 mins
CB - Fazio > Mosquera 35 mins
CB - Dragutinovic
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RW - Navas
LW - Adriano
CM - Poulsen
CM - Keita
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CF - Fabiano > Renato 77 mins
CF - Kanoute