매치 레포트 : 셀타 - 세비야

For the third consecutive game, Celta had managed to overcome a loss with a home victory, and yesterday was heroic.  Once again, they arrive to the international break in good shape and spirit, and they look ahead to two weeks of smiles and good spirit before their game against Real Madrid.

Nothing seemed to start well for Celta, as, just minutes before the game started, Javi Varas sustained a finger injury, ruling him out of the game. Sergio Alvarez, with whom he was warming up, had to take the starter spot without even being able to warm up properly, and Ruben Blanco had to come down from his seat in the stadium to be ready to sit on the bench as a substitute.

The expected matchup between Palop and Varas never happened, and so never happen any kind of interaction between the keepers. But as a replacement for the battle, Sergio did an excellent job, and is tied with Aspas as Man of the Match. He only had to touch the ball once, but he did what probably is the save of the season so far, flying to the right top corner, and denying Negredo header that was going directly into the debutant goal. If there was any doubt that Celta has a good replacement, this proved it. The fact is that Sergio entered the starting line ups last year due to an injury of Yoel, now on loan at CD Lugo, and he picked up the starter spot since that moment and never lost it until Javi Varas arrived. Depending on Varas injury, this could play in his favour again. After what we saw yesterday, he surely deserves a chance.

More good news is that Celta accomplished some of their goals, and the main one was to be able to be totally concentrated for the whole game. Players got into the field completely focused on the task they needed to accomplish, and there were nearly no mistakes, but still some that could be corrected.

Line by line, every single Celta player on the field yesterday had a terrific game. The defenders never lost their marks, and they came back to play what they do best, attack. Both Lago and Mallo timed perfectly their runs on both sides, supporting Augusto and MKD when attacking, and being supported when defending. This was key to success yesterday, as he Celta kept Sevilla´s wingers, but Jesus Navas, and side defenders paying more attention to defend than to attack.

Alex Lopez and Oubina were simply too much for Sevilla’s wounded midfield. If I stated on the match preview it was key to control the midfield and take advantage of Sevilla’s injuries and bans, both players dominated the timing and the passing against a very rocky pair, with Maduro being the bad cop, and Campana trying to create some football out of nothing. This time Alex Lopez took the role to support and lead the attack from the back, and he surely did. He had presence in nearly every of Celta’s attacking plays, and did something he has not done in the rest of the season, he had presence in the Rival’s area, even shooting twice. Probably his absence from the starting line-up last week served him as a reminder that he cannot be caught asleep, otherwise he will lose his place in the team, and so he had a tremendous game yesterday, seconded by legend to be, Borja Oubina, in my opinion, the glue that sticks this team together, the Director that makes the orchestra play, for him there are no words that can describe what this player is giving to Celta, after all the injuries he suffered, but Celta could not be understood without his presence on the field.

The four front man played yesterday, and two of them scored. De Lucas and Aspas netted one a piece, providing Celta with the accuracy they needed. Celta did not have as many chances as they had last week, but it is not a matter of creating chances, is a game where what counts and gives points is to score the goals, no matter if you play well or not. Celta had six chances and scored twice, last week they shoot twenty times and just scored one, so the improvement is notable. Park and Bermejo were not able to score, but surely provided Celta with hard work.

Celta will be having next weekend off due to international matchups, and is looking to schedule a friendly game either on Wednesday or Thursday to give opportunities to those that have not been getting many opportunities.

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