Sevilla beats Levante to stay near the top in Spanish league

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MADRID — Sevilla defeated Levante 1-0 on Wednesday to move to third place in the Spanish league and keep alive its title chances.

Youssef En-Nesyri scored early in the second half to give Sevilla its fourth straight victory — and sixth in its last seven league matches.

“We’ll keep fighting for the league title,” En-Nesyri said. “We are six matches away.”

Julen Lopetegui’s team reached 67 points, three behind league leader Atlético Madrid, which hosts Huesca on Thursday. Second-place Real Madrid also has 67 points ahead of its visit to Cádiz later Wednesday. Fourth-place Barcelona was two points behind. The Catalan club hosts Getafe on Thursday.

Sevilla is unbeaten in seven matches since being eliminated by Borussia Dortmund in the round of 16 of the Champions League in March.

It was the second loss in a row for Levante, which stayed 12th in the standings.

Players from Sevilla and Levante entered the match in Valencia wearing T-shirts condemning the Super League proposed by some of Europe’s top clubs.

The new league essentially folded before it even got started because of widespread criticism across the world of soccer, though Madrid and Barcelona were yet to officially say they were abandoning the project. The other 10 founding members dropped out.

Osasuna defeated Valencia 3-1 for its third win in a row, moving to eighth place. Valencia, winless in four matches, remained 14th, seven points from the relegation zone.

Players from both teams also wore T-shirts against the Super League before the match.

The Spanish league went ahead with its campaign against the new competition despite a local court injunction prohibiting actions against proposed league.

Among the actions by the Spanish league was a video urging teams to “earn it on the pitch!”

The messages was accompanied by the Champions League logo at the end, and the words “football is for the fans.”


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