London - Arabstoday
Sevilla lost 2-1 at home to Granada on Monday night, their first league defeat of the season, to lose touch with the leaders at the top of La Liga. With late second-half goals from Alexandre Geijo and Mikel Rico, Granada turned around a game that Sevilla were leading from the first minute after an opener from Manu del Moral. The defeat still leaves Sevilla in fifth position on 17 points, but they are now eight points behind leaders Real Madrid and seven off second-placed Barcelona. Real Madrid moved top on Saturday thanks to a 1-0 away win at Real Sociedad with Gonzalo Higuain scoring the winner for his 10th league goal of the season. Lionel Messi starred for Barcelona, now the only team to remain unbeaten, scoring a first-half hat-trick in a 5-0 weekend thumping of Mallorca. Levante drop to third after finally losing their first game of the season, 2-0 away to Osasuna after a remarkable run of seven straight victories. Del Moral got Sevilla of to a great start after only 38 seconds on Monday, pouncing on a parried save by Granada keeper Roberto Fernandez from a Martin Caceres shot, to put Sevilla ahead. What followed was one way traffic as Sevilla swamped their smaller Andalusian neighbours for most of the evening. However, Granada have already shown enough grit this season to make a fair fight of what will be a struggle for survival. After Ikechukwu Uche should have equalised after blazing over the bar from close range, Geijo headed home with eleven minutes remaining after a powerful Odion Igalho shot had hit the bar. Sevilla piled forward again in search of the three points but it was the away team who got them thanks to a well placed left-footed shot from Rico in the 89th minute. Granada have their goalkeeper Roberto to thank for foiling Sevilla all night long and for the win that moves them of the bottom of the table, leaving Getafe to prop up the rest of La Liga. In other games at the weekend Atletico Madrid beat Zaragoza 3-1 on Sunday to ease the pressure on much maligned coach Gregorio Manzano. Two goals from Adrian Lopez and one from Alvaro Dominguez gave Los Colchoneros their first win in eight matches, but did not stop the home fans from calling for the head of Manzano. Also on Saturday Valencia beat Getafe 3-1 to remain in fourth, four points off the pace, as they prepare to host Bayer Leverkusen on Tuesday in a must-win UEFA Champions League clash. Villarreal warmed up for their Champions League tie at home to Manchester City on Wednesday by beating Rayo Vallecano 2-0.