La Liga: Sevilla held 1-1 by Athletic Bilbao in Sampaoli’s return; Madrid wins against Getafe
BARCELONA: Dressed in dark jeans and a black T-shirt that couldn’t contain his muscular, tattooed arms, Jorge Sampaoli feverishly paced the sideline at Sánchez Pizjuán Stadium as if he wanted to play.
But even though the Sevilla players seemingly fed off the intensity of their 62-year-old new coach and took an early lead, they ended up drawing with Athletic Bilbao 1-1 in Sampaoli’s first game in charge.
Sevilla fans were left on Saturday waiting for their first home win in any competition this season. Sevilla, which finished fourth last season to earn a Champions League berth, has only one win in 11 games overall and remained in 17th place in the Spanish league.
Real Madrid had no such problems at Getafe and, despite dominating its modest crosstown rival, settled for a 1-0 win. The result lifted Madrid into the league lead ahead of Barcelona’s game against Celta Vigo on Sunday.
SAMPAOLI’S START
Sampaoli, who coached Sevilla in 2016-17, took the team over on Thursday, a day after the firing of Julen Lopetegui.
“It was a tough game because they are playing very well and we had a lot of baggage,” Sampaoli said. “We suffered in the second half. We’ll have to see how we can keep up (the intensity) over the full match. We only had one day to practice. Today we saw positive things but others we must improve.”
Óliver Torres capped Sevilla’s initial push with a goal in the fourth minute. But Bilbao took charge after halftime and equalized when Mikel Vesga fired a poor clearance by Nemanja Gudelj in from outside the area in the 73rd.
Bilbao’s Iñaki Williams went close to a winner with a header over the bar in the 88th.
Bilbao finished with 10 men after Ander Herrera saw a direct red deep in stoppage time for fouling Erik Lamela with only Spain goalkeeper Unai Simón to beat.
Bilbao stayed in third place at two points behind Barcelona as it continued to excel since the return of coach Ernesto Valverde for a third stint with the Basque club this summer.
Sampaoli’s next assignment is visiting Borussia Dortmund after last week’s 4-1 defeat to the German side in the Champions League cost Lopetegui his job.
MADRID WINS
An early header by center-back Éder Militão was all Madrid needed to ease to victory at Getafe and move three points clear of Barcelona.
With Karim Benzema resting, Militão picked up the scoring duties. He charged in at the near post to thump home a corner kick by Luka Modric in the third.
Getafe never went closer than Carles Aleña’s shot saved by goalie Andriy Lunin, who was playing a third straight game for the injured Thibaut Courtois.
Video reviews led to a goal by Rodrygo and a penalty against Vinícius Júnior, both Madrid forwards, being waived off.
OBLAK TO THE RESCUE
Ángel Correa scored twice and Jan Oblak made a pair of big saves to lead Atlético Madrid’s 2-1 home win over Girona.
Correa finished off a perfectly placed cross to the far post by Antoine Griezmann to give Atlético the fifth-minute lead.
Three minutes after halftime Correa pressured and intercepted a poor pass from goalkeeper Juan Carlos before firing the ball right back past him to make it a double.
Rodrigo Riquelme, who is playing for Girona on loan from Atlético, pulled one back in the 66th with a strike that took a deflection off a defender to fool Oblak.
But Oblak twice dove and stretched out one arm to keep out two long-range shots by Aleix García and ensure the three points.
“You can’t strike the ball any better than Aleix did on those two shots. Atlético has a goalkeeper that earns them points,” said Girona assistant coach Salvador Fúnez, who took over for the suspended Míchel Sánchez.
Atlético rose into fourth place, and next faces a rematch in the Champions League with Club Brugge, which stunned the Spanish side 2-0 this week.
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