A day after seeing their rivals falter, Sevilla took care of business. Sevilla moved past Atletico Madrid and Barcelona to go top of the Spanish league by beating Real Valladolid 1-0 on Sunday, 25 November.
Atletico and Barcelona had played out a 1-1 draw on Saturday, opening the way for Sevilla to take the lead with a home win.
We have to enjoy this. We have to enjoy it for now, and then we will get back to preparing for the difficulties that lie ahead.Pablo Machin, Sevilla coach
Sevilla also benefited from setbacks to other teams near the top of the standings. Alaves had a chance to go top on Friday but lost 1-0 at Leganes, while Real Madrid are sixth after a shock 3-0 defeat at Eibar on Saturday. That result ended the team's perfect run under coach Santiago Solari and left the Spanish powerhouse six points off the lead.
Sevilla, who had earlier led the league after the eighth round, have 26 points from 13 matches, one point more than Barcelona and two more than Atletico. Fourth-placed Alaves are three points behind.
We knew we had an opportunity today (Sunday) and we took advantage of it. This the result of our hard work day after day. We have to try to keep it up.Andre Silva, Sevilla
Looking to avoid their own setback, Sevilla controlled the match from the start at Ramon Sanchez-Pizjuan Stadium. They didn't create many significant scoring chances, but were always closest to scoring.
Silva got the winner with a 30th-minute header after a well-placed cross from Pablo Sarabia, giving Sevilla their seventh straight home win in all competitions. It was the eighth league goal for the Portuguese forward, who hadn't scored for Sevilla in five matches.
Valladolid had a 74th-minute goal disallowed for offside, and their biggest chance was a stoppage-time shot by substitute Enes Unal that forced a difficult save by Sevilla goalkeeper Tomas Vaclik.
The team, owned by Brazilian great Ronaldo, have now dropped to 12th in the standings.
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