Today after driving home at 100mph after sitting in the most boring class of my life, I turned on my GolTV to see Sevilla were already down 1-0 to Espanyol. I didn’t see the first half, so I can’t commentate on it, but as per Crazy Ray Hudson, I’m sure it wasn’t pretty.

The second half was ALL Sevilla, minus about 1.5 minutes in which Espanyol managed to pump in 2 goals. I don’t want to go through and give you a minute by minute rundown of the game since that isn’t my style, but I would rather like to talk about the game in general.

* Sevilla have been ‘lacking’ since the passing of Antonio Puerta in the beginning of the season. Sure they rolled against Getafe and against Deportivo, but they are Getafe and Deportivo, that is expected. When they were faced with the test of Arsenal, they lost 3-0 at the Emerates, which was a terrible game for Sevilla and they lost 2-1 against Barcelona at the Camp Nou.

* Sevilla was thought to be the winner before this game even started, and were expected to roll Espanyol, but they didn’t come out firing on all cylinders. Dani Alves wasn’t terribly impressing and to be honest, he hasn’t impressed me much this season. I know we need him at Sevilla, but it is about time that he starts to produce this season and doesn’t wait around until the January transfer window to get out of Sevilla.

* Koné was absolutly magnificent today. The entire second half I didn’t see him give away a ball at all, and at one point he made his way through the entire Espanyol defense and gave a great pass to Alves on the outside. He scored a goal on a world-class header served in from Diego Capel (my second favorite Sevillista at the moment.) Koné is making a claim for the starting spot next to Kanouté for the rest of the season.

* Give credit to Juande Ramos for subbing in Kanouté for Adriano and playing three strikers upfront, not a normal formation for Sevilla. The three strikers upfront were terrorizing the Espanyol back four and allowed numerous balls to be played out wide for Diego Capel and for Jesús Navas, who has been playing great as of late.

* Luis Garcia played a solid game for Espanyol, netting the second goal and keeping Sevilla honest in the back. And subbing in Raul Tamudo proved to be the difference as he scored the game winner in the 88th minute.

* Komeni is an absolutly world-class keeper for Espanyol. He made a few amazing saves that would have given Sevilla the win.

And now I give you the BUENO, the MALO and the FEO

BUENO:
Komeni –was stunning in goal, and was the reason for the Espanyol win.

MALO:
Dani Alves–didn’t have the best crosses today when they were needed. He hasn’t be in form as of late.

FEO:
Kerzkahov–missed 3 clear chances for goals today. He will need to be better if he doesn’t want to watch Kone start in his place.

Even more enjoyable was seeing Sevilla came through with a 4-1 trouncing of Recreativo with 2 goals by Kerzhakov and 2 by Kanouté. As.com said that Sevilla played at half-speed today, but they still gave it to Recre.

Sevilla play Arsenal this coming Wednesday in the first game of the Champions League and you have to say that they were looking forward to that game already.

I’ll post the goals here for everyone’s delight.

Goal 1 Kerzhakov 11′

Goal 2 Kanouté 30′

Goal 3 Kanouté 53′

Goal 4 Kerzhakov 74′

Sevilla got back to their winning ways today with a 4-1 trouncing of AEK Athens to qualify them for the Champions League.

The scoring was as follows

Luis Fabiano (pen 32)
Seydou Keita (41)
Luis Fabiano (45)
Alexander Kerzhakov (53)

I didn’t get to see the game as it was a bank holiday here in the US, but I have read several reports saying that it was the Sevilla of old back on the pitch. And just from watching the highlights, Sevilla look more hungry than ever to make a statement this season. Looking at the goals they scored, Sevilla were playing attacking football, and even having Luis Fabiano play midfield and Jesus Navas taking a crack upfront (unless I saw a misprint)

Sevilla need to be in the Champions League this year to show their strength and their ability. Last year in the UEFA Cup, Sevilla ran into a few problems, but when all was said and done, they didn’t face too tough of a challenge overall.

This year will be strikingly different however, as they draw ARSENAL,Steau Bucharest, Slavia Prague in their group this season.

Most are picking the Sevillistas to get through, and I believe they will. Slavia Prague could be the darkhorse in the group, but look for Sevilla to be moving onto the second round for sure.