Villarreal bring an end to Sevilla's 525-day home scoring run
The Yellow Submarine prevented the home side from scoring at the Sánchez Pizjuán for the first time in 27 games as Samir Nasri missed a penalty.
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Samir Nasri’s missed penalty and Sergio Asenjo’s saves from Vicente Iborra and Wissam Ben Yedder broke Sevilla’s run of 27 consecutive matches scoring at home in the Sánchez Pizjuán as Villarreal held the title challengers to a 0-0 draw on Sunday.
Since the beginning of the 2015-16 season, when Atlético Madrid won to nil on Sevilla’s turf, the home support had been able to celebrate at least one goal every game since. But, 525 days later, Villarreal managed to end the streak.
Nasri penalty miss
All eyes alighted on Nasri when he stepped up to take the penalty conceded with a foul on Vitolo by Mario Gaspar. The French midfielder had handed the ball to Pablo Sarabia against Las Palmas, but the former Getafe man was not on the pitch. He did the same in Vigo, so that Iborra could complete a hat-trick against Celta, but he was not in the side either. Ben Yedder was, and the Israel international has taken a few this season, although none were terribly important: he scored from the spot confidently against Granada with the game already tied up and twice against Formentera in the cup in the same circumstances.
Nobody questioned Nasri’s decision to take the penalty but Asenjo guessed correctly and made a comfortable save.
Sampaoli: Nasri is the designated taker
After the game Jorge Sampaoli confirmed that Nasri was the penalty-taker designated by the coaching staff. The Frenchman certainly tried to make amends throughout the game and had several chances but his luckless afternoon was compounded when he picked up a yellow that will rule him out of next week’s game at Las Palmas.
In the meantime, Villarreal join a select group of clubs to have left the Sánchez Pizjuán undefeated this season. Sunday’s was the first draw Sevilla have been held to this season while only Juventus and Barcelona have beaten Sampaoli’s side in Seville.