Villarreal 1-0 Sevilla

Spain,December,7-2010:Villarreal secure the 3rd spot on the table of league with 5 point down with Real Madrid.Sevilla have slumped to their fourth successive defeat in all competitions.
Nilmar struck the only goal of the game in the 30th minute as Villarreal consolidated their place in the top three and, perhaps most importantly, put more distance between two of their biggest rivals in the race for the Champions League spots.
Fifth-placed Valencia, who lost at Real Madrid last night, are now six points adrift of the Yellow Submarine while Sevilla, who have earned a Champions League berth in three of the last four seasons, are now 10 points behind.
The two sides came into the clash at El Madrigal in contrasting form, with Villarreal having beaten Real Zaragoza 3-0 last week before matching that scoreline in seeing off Dinamo Zagreb in midweek – a result that put Juan Carlos Garrido’s men through to the last 32 of the Europa League.
Sevilla, meanwhile, had suffered home defeats to Real Mallorca and Getafe in their previous two league matches, while their 4-2 loss at Paris St Germain on Thursday has left the Andalusian side facing a fight to reach the knockout stages of the Europa League.
It was no surprise, therefore, to see Villarreal start the better this evening and the hosts had gone close a couple of times before their strike duo of Giuseppe Rossi and Nilmar combined to break the deadlock.
Rossi’s through-ball picked out Nilmar’s run and the Brazilian just managed to skip around Sevilla goalkeeper Andres Palop – who got a hand on the ball but could not rob the Villarreal of possession – before rolling his shot into an empty net for his ninth of the season in La Liga.
That proved to be the match-winner in a hard-fought encounter, although Villarreal were indebted to goalkeeper Diego Lopez for keeping them ahead in the closing stages.
The Spain international produced two identical top-class saves diving down low to his right-hand post to keep out efforts from Frederic Kanoute and Fernando Navarro as Sevilla slumped to yet another defeat.

source:espnstar.com

Tags: cristino ronaldo, la liga, messi, sevilla, spain 2010, villerreal