New coach Gregorio Manzano suffered his first defeat in charge of Sevilla losing 2-0 at Sporting Gijon on Sunday to end the honeymoon period.
Argentine striker Gaston Sangoy put Gijon ahead on six minutes and Diego Castro added another on 51 minutes to leave Sevilla empty-handed.
Manzano started with wins over Borussia Dortmund in the Europa League and Atletico Madrid in the league but Sevilla’s second defeat of the season leaves them down in seventh.
Photo: REUTERS
Manzano gave Brazilian international forward Luis Fabiano — who has publicly said he wants to leave in January — only his second league start of the season but neither he nor his teammates could find the back of the net.
Espanyol collected their first away win of the season with a gritty 1-0 win at Real Mallorca despite playing more than half the match with ten men.
Luis Garcia scored a 31st minute penalty for his side’s first away goal of the campaign and it won the match although Espanyol had to dig deep with Pablo Osvaldo sent off in the 35th minute for a stray elbow.
Espanyol climb up to sixth with their maiden away win while Mallorca fell to tenth following their first home defeat of the season.
“We put in an incredible amount of effort with one man less against a Mallorca team that had turned in a great performance against Barcelona [a 1-1 draw] last time out,” Espanyol coach Mauricio Pochettino said.
Athletic Bilbao went above Mallorca into eighth after a 2-1 home win over 10-man Real Zaragoza at San Mames.
Fernando Llorente built on his three goals in Spain’s two Euro 2012 qualifiers with a 23rd minute strike for Bilbao.
Zaragoza were reduced to ten men when Adam Pinter was sent off on 53 minutes and the club sit bottom of the table with no win to their name. Elsewhere Deportivo La Coruna are still searching for their first win of the season after a 0-0 home draw with Osasuna at the Riazor.
Depor were Champions League finalists as recently as 2004 and won the Spanish league title in 2000 but they are currently second from bottom of the table with no win from seven.
In other matches, Levante won the battle of the promoted sides defeating fellow newcomers Real Sociedad 2-1 for their second win of the season.
Levante scored twice in six minutes with Asier del Horno opening the scoring after 59 minutes before striker Felipe Caicedo struck on 65 minutes.
Also on Sunday Racing Santander beat Almeria 1-0.
Villarreal had the chance to go top of the table for the first time in their history yesterday if they could beat Hercules.
“It would be nice to be leaders but it can’t be an obsession,” said Villarreal defender Joan Capdevila. “Hercules were capable of winning at Camp Nou [against Barcelona] and that shows they are a team to watch out for.”
Ahead of yesterday’s game Villarreal were two points behind leaders Real Madrid, who crushed Malaga 4-1 on Saturday to replace Valencia at the summit.
Valencia lost 2-1 at Barcelona on Saturday.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
HSIEH MAKES QUARTERS: Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens of Belgium won in the women’s doubles and face Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sofia Kenin of the US Top-ranked Iga Swiatek and US Open champion Coco Gauff were knocked out of the women’s singles at the Miami Open on Monday, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced in the women’s doubles. Swiatek lost to Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 6-2, hours after third seed Gauff fell in three sets to No. 23 Caroline Garcia 6-3, 1-6, 6-2. Alexandrova beat a top-ranked player for the first time and advanced to face Jessica Pegula, a 7-6 (7/1), 6-3 winner over Emma Navarro, in the quarter-finals. Alexandrova recorded her second win over Swiatek, following a 2021 victory in Melbourne. Swiatek had won their three matches since. “We played quite