Sevilla pick apart 10-man Dinamo Zagreb

Current group leaders Sevilla put on a show against Dinamo Zagreb in front of the Estadio Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan, cruising to a 4-0 victory against 10 men.

Paulo Henrique Ganso and Matias Kranevitter made their way into the starting XI to cover for the absence of Samir Nasri, who in the past month or so has become the central part of coach Jorge Sampaoli’s system.

So much so, that without the ex-Arsenal man, Sampaoli had no choice but to switch away from his usual back-three, Sergio Escudero and Mariano this time acting as regular full-backs and not as wing-backs. In the match’s early stages, Dinamo were defending deep within their own half, most of the players behind the ball, as Sevilla happily took the majority of the possession and initiative of the match.

The probing continued, as the Andalusians looked to draw out the Croatian side, who barely ventured forward in attack except for El Arabi Hillel Soudani, their main outlet on the right wing. Worringly at first, a banged-up Vitolo was handed a knock after hurting his back within the opening 10 minutes, though he would play on and lead Sevilla’s fine attacks by cutting inward from the wing.

After a N’Zonzi header forced an acrobatic save, Sevilla were knocking once more, and Luciano Vietto took an intuitive touch in the box to open the scoring in the 31st minute.It was exactly what the Argentine needed after a start at his new club that had been defined by his general play and not his goals.