Sevilla win boosts troubled coach Alvarez

Sevilla bounced back from their Champions League failure with a 4-1 win over promoted Levante on Saturday to ease the pressure on coach Antonio Alvarez.

A brace from Frenchman Abdoulay Konko and further goals from Alvaro Negredo and Renato gave Sevilla and Alvarez a much-needed boost after the disappointment of losing to Braga in the Champions League qualifier four days ago.

Sevilla got off to a nightmare start with debutant Luca Cigarini handballing to concede a penalty after just 10 minutes and Ruben Suarez made no mistake from the spot.

Alvarez looked a worried man on the touch-line but his side replied two minutes later with Konko bundling home and Negredo then put them ahead through a 28th minute penalty.

Konko grabbed his second on 62 minutes and Brazilian Renato bagged a fourth late on to give the visitors a convincing win.

In other matches, Valencia showed there was life after David Villa as a quick-fire Joaquin brace helped the Champions League hopefuls to an opening 3-1 win over Malaga on Saturday.

Winger Joaquin, 29, inherited Villa’s number seven shirt following the striker’s 40-million-euro move to Barcelona and he took on the goalscoring mantle by scoring twice in four minutes to seal victory for Valencia.

“We went out with the right mentality and we have managed to continue where we left off last season,” said Valencia coach Unai Emery. “It is going to be a long season and it was important to win to gain some early confidence.”

Debutant Aritz Aduriz had put Valencia ahead nine minutes into his debut before Sebas Fernandez equalised shortly before the break.

With the scores level former Spain international Joaquin made the breakthrough, cutting inside on his right foot to thunder in a low shot on 70 minutes and then volleying a second four minutes later to wrap up the points.

Valencia, who also sold attacking midfielder David Silva to Manchester City in the summer, join Athletic Bilbao on three points at the summit.

Earlier, Spanish World Cup winner Fernando Llorente scored the decisive goal as Bilbao won 1-0 at promoted Hercules in the curtain-raiser to the 2010/11 La Liga season.

The 25-year-old Llorente powered in a header 60 seconds after the restart for the first goal of the new season and it was enough to give Bilbao the three points.

Bilbao finished an impressive eighth last season and hope to be pushing for a European spot once again, having held on to their Spanish international stars Llorente and Javi Martinez.

On Sunday Jose Mourinho leads out Real Madrid for the first time when his side travel to a Real Mallorca team managed by Real old boy Michael Laudrup.

Mourinho has been brought in on a bumper contract to try and break Barcelona’s stranglehold on La Liga and put the club back among Europe’s elite.

Champions Barcelona begin their defence on Sunday at Racing Santander as they target a third straight league title.

On Saturday Barcelona agreed to let striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic join AC Milan in an initial loan deal that allows the cash-strapped Italian side to pay the 24 million euro fee in three installments.