Match reports

0-2: REGUILÓN AND NOLITO GIVE SEVILLA A GREAT START TO THE SEASON

18/08/2019

The fullback picked up the rebound after De Jong hit the bar to score the first goal, and capped off a great individual performance in the second half

LaLiga has begun. A serious, intense and a Sevilla FC team with a lot of personality, dominated the majority of the game with the style that Julen Lopetegui is implementing, took home the three points from the RCDE Stadium thanks to goals from Reguilón and Nolito, one in each half. Fernando and Jordán brought a presence to the midfield, with Carriço and Diego Carlos not giving the opposition a sniff of goal and the man who scored the first goal of the game giving lots of problems to the Espanyol right hand side. First victory with an effective goalscorer who had hardly problems to worry about in defence.

Sevilla FC carried out a very competent first half, in which the made the most of the situation by taking the lead in the last minute of normal time, and walking off the pitch and down the tunnel with the lead. From the outset, Lopetegui's men were exploiting the left hand side of the pitch, giving balls to Nolito and with Reguilón overlapping and on some occasions breaking into the opposition's back-line; however, this did not lead to any clear goal-scoring opportunity.

A ball turned over in the midfield was finished off with Reguilón giving Sevilla the lead

Espanyol, who also tried to keep to their style of play, started to dominate the possession as time went by. This was when Sevilla fell back and became compact and did not allow any gaps to appear so that the three attackers that David Gallego went with could not worry Sevilla. Just before the half hour mark, Vargas made Vaclík pull off a save from a long shot that the Czech turned away for a corner.

With the fourth official preparing the board to announce the added-on time, a ball won back in the midfield found its way to Navas, who's cross put it on the head of De Jong, who's header was saved on the line by Diego Lopez. The ball, which stayed alive, hit off the crossbar and Reguilón, who was very alert to the second ball, put it into the back of the Espanyol net to give Sevilla the lead.

Nolito showed his quality in the box to secure the victory in the last minutes of the game

The second half started with the same rhythm of the first, with neither team making a change. Ten minutes after the restart, the referee signalled to the penalty spot after a collision between Diego Carlos and Ferreyra, a punishment which was later overturned after the referee consulted with VAR. Sevilla did not shrink into themselves and afterwards, put a lot of pressure on Espanyol, who were not comfortable with having to hit Sevilla on the counter.

Nolito scored at the second time of asking to make it 0-2 with a brilliant finish. After Navas won the ball back, he sent it forward, where Nolito found himself in a one on one with Diego López and could only put the shot over the bar. Lopetegui made three changes before the 75 minute mark, bringing on Munir, Gudelj and Koundé, and the team started to protect their lead against an Espanyol team who, without causing too much pressure, were looking for an opening to get back into the game.

But Nolito, who had a good game, was the one who would put the game to bed. A throw-in in the attacking area from Reguilón, which caught the Espanyol defence off-guard, found its way to Nolito who, with coolness and quality, skipped past Naldo with a drop of the shoulder and put it past Diego López, finishing off the game and making sure of the three points.

In the second matchday of the season, Sevilla FC will travel to Granada CF next Friday, with kick off in the 'Nuevo Los Cármenes' at 20.00.

MATCH STATISTICS

0. RCD ESPANYOL: Diego López, Javi López, Naldo, Lluis López, Dídac Vila, Marc Roca, Víctor Sánchez (Sergi Darder, '64), Melendo, Vargas, Ferreyra (Calero, '81) y Wu Lei (Víctor Campuzano, '69).

2. SEVILLA FC: Vaclík, Jesús Navas, Carriço, Diego Carlos (Koundé, '74), Reguilón, Fernando, Jordán, Óliver Torres (Gudelj, '76), Ocampos (Munir, '60), Nolito y De Jong.

GOALS: 0-1 Reguilón, 44 minutes. 0-2 Nolito, 86 minutes.

REFEREE: Martinez Munuera. Yellow cards for Reguilón, Ocampos, Víctor Sánchez and Vargas