Sevilla were shipwrecked at the Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán and lost 1-2 against Lille on the fourth day of the Champions League, in which they have not yet won and become the bottom of Group G, after a terrible game in which He barely created chances and was dominated by the reigning French champion, very effective and taking a breath to go to the eighth.
In a very gray game for Sevilla, Lille equaled the goal of the Argentine Lucas Ocampos, at a quarter of an hour of play and then turned into a mirage, with the 1-1 penalty from Canadian Jonathan David two minutes before the break, Prelude to a second half in which the French, more incisive, came back with the 1-2 of the omnipresent Jonahan Ikoné to greatly complicate the goal for the Spanish team.
It was a crucial duel for both to continue with their options intact to go to the round of 16, and more so knowing that Wolfsburg, until today bottom, had beaten Austrian Salzburg 2-1, still leading with 7 points, with the Germans already with 5 and the 3 and 2 that accumulated, respectively, Spanish and French on this fourth day.
With the loss due to injury of the Argentine Papu Gómez, the Sevilla coach, Julen Lopetegui, kept Rafa Mir up, as his Moroccan striker En-Nesyri was not yet one hundred percent, with Suso and the Argentine Lucas Ocampos at the ends and the Brazilian Fernando and Danish Delaney as bastions in midfield.
Even more demanded than the Spanish team, with its future in this tournament at stake and after four games without winning among all competitions -10 in a row in the Champions League-, Lille arrived in Seville for all, but without its point of reference, the Turkish Burak Yilmaz, due to injury, with which his coach Jocelyn Gourvennec put the Canadian international Jonathan David and the young American Timothy Weah, son of the mythical George.
The shared need of the two teams was evident from the beginning, full of verve and energy both in Lille, who looked for quick connections in dangerous terrain, but without any success, as in Sevilla, who warned with a header that Ocampos, very active in the beginning, he sent high in a corner.
The team from the north of France seemed to calm down, without haste to look for their best option from the quality of the Portuguese Renato Sanches and the speed of the Weah-David duo, while the Andalusians did not cease in their push to try to surprise, which Ocampos achieved by making the 1-0 just at the quarter of an hour.
Accurate and timely, the one from Quilmes, who chased away his scoring drought last Saturday by scoring the final 2-0 against Osasuna, signed his second goal of the season by taking advantage of a rejection of the Croatian goalkeeper Ivo Grbic at Rafa Mir’s shot, after a good pass behind Suso helped, unfortunately for the Gauls, by a rebound.
From there, Sevilla practically disappeared, pressured by the greater dynamism and ambition of Lille. He recoiled, he lacked constancy, concentration and depth. And, after a warning from the French winger Jonathan Bamba, a shot that Jesus Navas hit and cleared, very surely, the Moroccan Bono, paid dearly two minutes before the break.
It was on a penalty committed by Delaney, when he slapped Bamba in an action without apparent danger. A maximum penalty that, at the request of the VAR, the referee decreed after seeing the play on the screen at the foot of the field and that the American international for Canada David converted with a tight shot at 1-1.
The French winger Jonathan Ikoné, after a failure of the Brazilian Diego Carlos, had a clear option to come back at 45 in a heads up that Bono resolved to perfection. A panorama that did not change in the resumption, because the sevillistas began just as thick, without ideas or control, with many nerves.
The short circuit of the Spanish team was appreciated by Lille, more intense and clairvoyant, to the point that at 6 minutes Bamba, a nightmare together with Ikoné for the local full-backs, a dangerous cross was taken that ended with a shot from the Turkish Celik to the base of the post and, in the rebound, Ikoné picked up the ball and scored the 1-2.
This hard blow did not lead to the Sevilla reaction, absolutely lost and anxious, without keeping the ball before the strong pressure of the French midfield and without the verticality and clarity necessary to create problems for his rival, except in a loose shot in the 73rd of Erik Lamela who stopped Grbic.
The Argentine had entered the field through a misguided Delaney, along with his compatriot Montiel through an injured Jesús Navas, En-Nesyri, Jordán and a little later Munir to put more gunpowder still, but without any success or criteria, since Lille, Very serious and physically strong, he kept his income without going through any trouble to the disappointment of the Sevilla fans.
– Data sheet:
1 – Seville: Bond; Jesús Navas (Montiel, m.65), Koundé, Diego Carlos, Acuña; Delaney (Lamela, m.57), Fernando, Óliver Torres (Munir, m.72); Suso (Jordán, m.57), Rafa Mir (En-Nesyri, m.57), Ocampos.
2 – Lille: Grbic; Çelik, Fonte, Djaló, Reinildo Mandava; Ikoné, Renato Sanches (Onana, m.75), André, Bamba; Weah (Yazici, m.72), David (Xeka, m.86)
Goals: 1-0, M.15: Ocampos. 1-1, M.43: David, from a penalty. 1-2, M.51: Ikoné.
Referee: István Kovács (Romania). Locally admonished Delaney (m.42), En-Nesyri (m.60), coach Julen Lopetegui (m.61), Ocampos (m.89), Montiel (m.95) and Diego Carlos (m.96) ), and the visitors Bamba (m.78), Ikoné (m.79), André (m.87), Xeka (m.95), Grbic (m.96) and Yazici (m.97).
Incidents: Match of the fourth day in Group G of the Champions League, played at the Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán before about 35,000 spectators. EFE (HN)