Kanoute leads nine-man Sevilla to Valencia win

Published: 24 Sep 2011 - 20:05:38

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Kanoute leads nine-man Sevilla to Valencia win

Evergreen striker Frederic Kanoute scored the only goal as unbeaten Sevilla sent Valencia crashing to their first defeat of La Liga season on Saturday, despite finishing the match with just nine men.

Sevilla are second in the table, a point behind leaders Real Betis but a point ahead of Valencia who also had a player red-carded and missed a penalty.

Valencia coach Unai Emery rested a number of players ahead of Wednesday's Champions League clash with Chelsea, including the league's joint top scorer Roberto Soldado who started on the bench.

Jonas Goncalves shaved the post on 16 minutes for Valencia with a curling right footed shot for his team's best chance of the opening period.

But a minute later Sevilla got the only goal when Kanoute finished powerfully after a Jesus Navas pass found him alone in the penalty area.

Sevilla always looked more likely to add to that lead, their best chance coming from a Diego Perotti shot on 51 minutes that produced an acrobatic save from Valencia keeper Vicente Guaita.

Sevilla were then rocked when Piotr Trochowski was sent-off on 57 minutes after his second yellow card, giving Valencia the impetus to get back into the game.

And on 68 minutes they had their best chance when Ever Banega hit the post from the penalty spot after Julien Escude had pulled down Aritz Aduriz.

Escude then received his marching orders to leave the home team with only nine players.

But three minutes later, Aduriz was also red-carded after an off the ball incident with Sevilla centre-half Emil Spahic, making it 10 against nine for the final 20 minutes.

Soldado appeared from the bench on 77 minutes for Valencia but their numerical advantage was not enough in a dissapointing evening for Emery's team.

Igor Gabilondo for Athletic Bilbao and Villarreal's Nilmar Honorato da Silva got the goals in San Mames in a 1-1 draw in Saturday's other early kick-off.

Under pressure Bilbao failed to give Argentinian coach Marcelo Bielsa his first win in Spain, while the draw does nothing to advance Villarreal's European prospects after their indifferent start to the season.

Bilbao began the stronger in front of an encouraging home crowd with Iker Munain pulling the strings from the centre of midfield.

And they opened the scoring just before half-time when Gabilondo slid into the penalty area to finish a right wing cross from Markel Susaeta.

Villarreal came out stronger in the second half and Marcos Senna went close with long range efforts on 47 minutes and 51 minutes, before the equaliser from Nilmar.

The Brazilian international could not fail to miss in front of goal after good work from Giuseppi Rossi on the left wing.

On 76 minutes a Javi Martinez header for Bilbao was stopped by an inspired Diego Lopez in the Villarreal goal.

Bilbao centre-half Borja Ekiza saw his second yellow card with 10 minutes remaining.

Later Saturday, Real Madrid welcome Rayo Vallecano with Jose Mourinho admitting he is "worried" by his team's form.

Since a 4-2 victory over Getafe in their last outing at the Bernabeu, Real have suffered on their travels, slumping to defeat at Levante before a goalless draw at Racing Santander in midweek left them five points off the lead held by Real Betis.

"It's less worrying to draw a match in which you're the only side that tries to play and win," said Mourinho after Wednesday's match in Santander.

"But we've dropped five points in two away games and that is worrying. We've scored one goal in our last three games and we must return to normality by scoring and winning on Saturday."

Fortunately for Mourinho, Barcelona are not yet firing on all cylinders either and lead Real by just a point after twice coming from behind to draw 2-2 at second-placed Valencia on Wednesday.

The Catalans were majestic in their 8-0 thrashing of Sporting Gijon last weekend, but they were indebted to a late equaliser from Cesc Fabregas at the Mestalla in midweek.