Today's midday match at the Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán certainly did not follow the script. Sevilla FC won a third straight league match for the first time this season, but it was not plain sailing for them against a resilient Leganés side. Diego Carlos pounced on a goalmouth scramble after a corner to score the only goal of the match. Aguirre's men tested Tomas Vaclík, who, alongside the centre-half pairing of Diego Carlos and Jules Koundé, turned in an top-quality performance. After an injury-time full of controversy and tension, Sevilla held on for three points and are currently the main opposition to Real Madrid and FC Barcelona, who in fact play away to Atlético de Madrid tonight.
It was a dull, chilly morning in Nervión, and the football early on mirrored the weather. Aguirre came with a very clear plan, a five-man defence which gave Sevilla very little space and sought to frustrate them. Early attempts to beat Cuéllar were blocked. Siovas barely lasted five minutes on the field and had to be substituted after a collision with Franco Vázquez. The first real chance came after a quarter of an hour, when a wicked cross from Óliver Torres was headed wide by Nolito.
Sevilla dominated, playing down the wings, particularly the left-hand side, but struggled to create clear-cut chances. De Jong had one of the better chances of the half, which was well-saved by Cuéllar, and Franco Vázquez had a header cleared off the line from the resulting corner. A couple of minutes later, Sevilla broke away at pace after a Leganés corner, with Jesús Navas laying it on a plate for De Jong, but his back-heel flick went narrowly wide. Sevilla did eventually have the ball in the net, De Jong had another chance tipped away by Cuéllar, but Vázquez was flagged offside as he bundled in the rebound.