Sevilla Vs. Athletic Bilbao, 2011 La Liga: “Leones,” “Rojiblancos” Level At One After Exciting First Half

Sevilla and Athletic Bilbao battled to an emphatic 1-1 draw in the first half of their Liga BBVA clash at the Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán in Sevilla Sunday evening. Athletic started off the scoring in the 5th minute, as Iraola collected a bouncing ball at the top of the box and blasted it past Sevilla keeper Javi Varas. But Sevilla came roaring back in the 14th minute, when Kanouté collected a ball at the top of the area, and, fed it to a sprinting Jesús Navas with his head. The speedy winger slotted the ball across Basque keeper Iraizoz and into the bottom left corner of the net.

The game progressed from there, with both sides holding the accelerator down and attacking at full speed. Sevilla almost too the lead on a couple of nifty moves from forward Álvaro Negredo, while Marcelo Bielsa's side looked equally dangerous, especially in the air. Fernando Llorente seemed to be the main target for los leones, though youngster Iker Muniain may have been the more dangerous of the pair, with a pair of biting, meandering runs to his credit.