New coach, same story as Sevilla lose to Villarreal

New Sevilla coach Antonio Alvarez had a debut to forget as his side crashed to a 3-0 defeat at Villarreal on Sunday, missing the opportunity to move above Real Mallorca into fourth.

Alvarez took over from Manolo Jimenez, sacked on Tuesday, but got off to a horrible start as the visitors fell two goals behind after just 17 minutes and, despite an improved second half, could not find a way back into the match.

Brazilian international Nilmar created early goals for Giuseppe Rossi in the fourth minute and Joseba Llorente in the 17th as Villarreal seized control of the match, before Robert Pires added an injury-time third.

Victory moves Villarreal to within two points of the top six.

Sevilla sit two points behind Mallorca, beaten 1-0 by Barcelona on Saturday, in fifth, having failed to win any of their last six league matches and they face a real fight to qualify for next season’s Champions League.

It has been a nightmare March for Sevilla with a last-16 exit from the Champions League to CSKA Moscow, no wins in the league and the sacking of Jimenez, who had guided the club to this season’s King’s Cup final.

Real Madrid, three points behind Barcelona, aim to return to the summit when they host Atletico Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu later on Sunday in the capital derby.

Atletico have not beaten rivals Real in a derby for over a decade but winger Jose Antonio Reyes hopes that jinx can finally be broken.

“We don’t have (Gonzalo) Higuain or (Cristiano) Ronaldo but I hope it is the derby of Reyes and above all Atletico,” said Reyes.

Real defender Sergio Ramos said his team can not afford any slips with just ten games left but believes Real have the upper hand over Barcelona as a lot of their key games are at home.

“We have ten finals with no margin for error,” said Ramos. “We have the advantage that the tough games are at home with our fans behind us.”

Champions Barcelona became only the second team to win at Mallorca on Saturday night with Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s goal securing a 1-0 win to take them top of the table, three points ahead of Real.

The Champions League is the next stop for Barcelona, with a tough quarter-final first leg trip to Arsenal on Wednesday.

Promoted Xerez have clearly not given up hope of beating the drop this season after defeating relegation rivals Valladolid 3-0 at home on Sunday to make it 10 points from the last 15.

Victor Sanchez, on loan from Barcelona, scored in the first minute to put Xerez ahead and further goals from Michel Gonzalez and Mario Bermejo sealed a fine win for the second division champions, who looked doomed a matter of weeks ago.

Xerez stay bottom of the table, where they have been languishing all season, but their recent revival has seen them move to within seven points of safety.

Valladolid are second from bottom, two points ahead of Xerez.

Deportivo La Coruna’s European hopes suffered a blow with a 3-1 home loss against Getafe on Sunday that leaves them in seventh and Athletic Bilbao can move three points clear of them with victory over Racing Santander on Monday.

A brace from Miku helped Getafe, now two points off the top six, get over their derby defeat to Real Madrid in mid-week and heap more misery on Depor, who have collected one point from the last 12.