We registered our first home win of the season with a 1-0 victory against Sevilla courtesy of Cyle Larin’s first league goal for the club.
Javier Aguirre returned to a more familiar starting XI following our Copa del Rey win midweek as Pablo Maffeo, Sergi Darder and Jaume Costa returned.
Predrag Rajkovic had a night to remember and had to be at his best to make a fine early save to prevent Lucas Ocampos finding the bottom corner in the fourth minute.
We took the lead in the 11th minute when Samu Costa’s misplaced touch arrived at the feet at Larin who took a touch and fired into the bottom corner inside the box.
Rajkovic was called into action in the 36th minute to make an acrobatic stop and deny Ocampos from finding an equaliser with a flicked header as we headed into the break with the advantage.
The visitors looked to level matters as early as possible after the restart, but some resolute defending kept Sevilla at arm’s length.
Rajkovic did well to parry Sergio Ramos’ powerful header on the hour mark after the defender rose highest at a corner.
Sevilla thought they had equalised when Pedroso found the back of the net from distance two minutes later, but a VAR review ruled out the goal for a hand ball.
We came close to a second in the 83rd minute when Abdòn teed up Antonio Sanchez, but our midfielder’s attempt was stopped as we saw out the lead to ensure all three points stayed at home.