Sevilla vs Atletico Madrid. Spanish La Liga.
Ramon Sanchez PizjuanAttendance34,571.
Sunday 23 October 2016 21:51, UK
Steven N'Zonzi scored a well-deserved winner for Sevilla as they beat 10-man Atletico Madrid 1-0 on Sunday at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan.
The rangy midfielder broke clear down the middle and kept his composure to slot the ball calmly beyond the despairing dive of Jan Oblak after a excellent through ball from Luciano Vietto.
Life got even harder for Atletico, when Koke was shown his second yellow of the game for a lunging challenge on Rami in the 77th minute.
The win ended their dismal record in which they had not beaten the visitors since 2011 and had failed to score in the last four meetings.
Former Manchester City midfielder Samir Nasri was excellent all game and was the focal point for much of Sevilla's play, hitting the post shortly after half-time with a clever strike.
Torrential rain fell in the south west of Spain and the ball zipped around on the greasy surface, with Sevilla adjusting to the conditions much quicker, as their pressure forced a couple of nervy moments from Oblak.
Kevin Gameiro - who spent three prolific seasons with Sevilla - broke towards the box, only to be halted by Adil Rami, who was shown a yellow card for his troubles and the resulting free-kick was blasted into the wall by Antoine Griezmann.
N'Zonzi - who played for Blackburn and Stoke - was playing well in the midfield, bringing composure to a frantic match as Sevilla continued to enjoy much of the play.
Vitolo went down in theatrical fashion in a desperate attempt to win a penalty, much to the fury of Atletico and Diego Simeone, who gestured for action to be taken.
In spite of the possession stats, it was Atletico who looked more likely to score and they once again broke with purpose, with Gameiro seeing his angled drive saved by Sergio Rico.
A high ball from the right was whipped in by Juanfran and was cleared by the Sevilla back-line, prompting Simeone to leave his area and urge his side to up the tempo and they did just that but not how he would have wanted with Angel Correa and Gabi both seeing yellow cards.
Nicolas Gaitan was introduced at the start of the second half for the booked Correa as Simeone did not want to take any risks with the game still very much an even affair.
However, the pendulum swung in favour of Sevilla and they nearly took the lead when Nasri showed more nifty footwork to lose two defenders and his low shot hit the base of Oblak's right-hand post.
Sevilla continued to press and almost broke the deadlock when Vitolo fired a close-range effort straight at Oblak after excellent work down the right from Mariano.
Further changes were made by Simeone, who brought on Tiago and Fernando Torres, but it was Sevilla who took the lead.
Recieving the ball in the middle, Vietto spotted the rampaging run of N'Zonzi and played a perfect through ball into his path and, with the composure of a seasoned centre-forward, slotted beneath the onrushing Oblak.
The situation then became even more difficult for Atletico when Koke was shown his second yellow for a lunging challenge on Rami.
As the scoreboard read three additional minutes, Atletico had one final chance to draw level, but Diego Godin could only steer his header into the palms of the grateful Rico.
