Sevilla dismantled Levante with five second half goals in the Andaluz sunshine, celebrating the club's 129th birthday with their tenth league win this season.
Pablo Machin left Pablo Sarabia and Simon Kjaer on the bench, with Barcelona awaiting in the Copa Del Rey Quarter Final 2nd leg on Wednesday. Jesus Navas and Sergio Escudero were injured. Austrian defender Maximilian Wober - recently signed from Ajax - made his debut on the left of a three-man defence. Sevilla played 3-5-2, as did Levante.
Paco Lopez left top scorer Roger Marti on the bench, pairing Emmanuel Boateng with Borja Mayoral in attack. Tono Garcia was injured so Jose Morales played left wing back. 22 year old Fran Manzanara played at centre back - this was his maiden top flight start.
The first half was fairly even, with both teams fashioning chances. Sevilla had more possession, with Levante looking to contain them and threaten on the break.
Wissam Ben Yedder tested Oier early on, after a nice through ball from Aleix Vidal. Boateng then headed over for Levante, and Ruben Rochina delivered a lovely free kick into the Sevilla box.
Thereafter Machin's side took control. Wober almost broke the deadlock on debut after a wonderful forward surge. Just before half time the energetic Roque Mesa hit the post from distance.
After half time Sevilla scored early and Levante collapsed, affording Machin's players too much time and space.
Within three minutes of the restart Vidal and Mesa combined to set up Ben Yedder who scored his 10th goal in La Liga this season - a beautiful team effort.
After Enis Bardhi had a shot ricochet onto the post, Sevilla began to crush the visitors, who looked increasingly disorientated as the game progressed.
The impressive Quincy Promes set up Andre Silva who broke a seven games goal-less streak (in the league) to make it 2-0 after an hour.
Sarabia came on for Vidal, with Promes moving to the right flank. Sarabia had missed one good chance when he set up Franco Vazquez for the third goal. After getting his seventh assist of the league campaign Sarabia made it 4-0 with a penalty, after Promes's wonderful skill drew substitute Jason Remeseiro into a foul.
In the final minute Erick Cabaco's clumsy challenge on Mesa gave Sevilla their second spot kick of the afternoon which Oier saved from Promes, but the Dutch international tucked home the rebound for this maiden La Liga goal.
One of the only negatives for Machin was the first half injury to Sergi Gomez, who hadn't missed a minute all season. He was ably replaced by Gabriel Mercado. Vidal also put ice on his leg after coming off in the second half.
Levante were competing well until the first goal, after which they imploded and seemed to stop working as a unit.defensively.
Sevilla's third goal was a great example of how poorly they defended with Mesa, Sarabia and Vazquez all given far too much time and space. The Sevilla counter attack on 66 minutes also demonstrated an uncharacteristic lack of urgency, commitment and hunger from Lopez's team. They have now gone six away games without a victory.
For Sevilla, this was the perfect way to celebrate 129 years in existence, and the ideal pre-cursor for their game at Camp Nou on Wednesday. They move into third place, above Real Madrid who play at Espanyol tomorrow.
Images from AS and Andalucia Informacion
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