2-1: A HIGHLY VALUABLE COMEBACK TO HEAD INTO THE BREAK WITHIN A POINT OF TOP SPOT

La Liga threw down a challenge to Sevilla FC of facing the second-placed team heading into this weekend. An especially important challenge, as the league leaders, who went into the weekend four points ahead of Machín's men, had dropped all three points at home. It was an ideal opportunity to move up the table, but it was anything but easy. A good Espanyol team, without doubt, the best team to visit Nervión this season, made things very difficult and went into the break a goal ahead. When the task was starting to look too great midway through the second half, two assists from Banga allowed Mercado and Ben Yedder to turn the match around. The team goes into the international break second in the table, within one point of top spot and with moral higher than ever.

This was a match between two teams at the top of the league and it showed from the start, with both teams playing ut a highly tactical and measured match. Sarabia tried his luck from range less than two minutes into the game, but Espanyol did not hesitate to get forward whenever they found spaces down the middle. Franco Vázquez and Carriço went into the book early, although Sevilla continued trying to test Diego lópez. On the tenth minute, a measured cross from the left by the Argentine was met by Quincy Promes' head, but the effort was too weak to truly trouble the ex-Sevilla goalkeeper. As the minutes ticked by with the scores level, but Machín's men were certainly looking more dangerous. One of the most clear-cut opportunities in the first-half was a looping header by André Silva. López, with great reflexes, got his hand to it just in time to push it over the bar.

The first few minutes were very tactical, with both teams fighting for every ball.

The home side continued to go forward, spurred on by a crowd aware of the importance of the match and Sarabia had another go, but among all this the away side got their only clear opportunity of the match so far, to tilt the balance of the match. Rubi's team got down the left-hand side sharply and the ball arrived at the near post, where an in-form Borja Iglesias, who has scored in four consecutive matches, put the ball past Vaclík into the net. A hammer blow for Sevilla who had tried everything and saw their opponents score with almost their first chance. After this, the end of the first half was very different from the rest of the half, with Machín's team fired up but with no more luck than up to this point. Navas with a near-post shot and Silva with a driven effort across the goal had the best opportunities to equalise, but half-time arrived without any reward for all their efforts.