European roundup: Sevilla win to close gap at top; Dortmund slip to draw

Second-placed Sevilla defeated their bitter rivals Real Betis 2-1 on Sunday to close the gap on the La Liga leaders Real Madrid to six points. Julen Lopetegui’s team dominated the derby from the beginning and Ivan Rakitic opened the scoring in the 24th minute with a penalty after the goalkeeper Claudio Bravo had tripped the striker Youssef En Nesyri in a one-on-one challenge inside the area.

Four minutes before the break Munir El Haddadi, who had come on minutes earlier for the injured Papu Gomez, took advantage of a mistake from the Betis defence to win the ball and put a low cross-shot between Bravo and his left post. Sergio Canales scored the consolation goal for Betis in stoppage time with a perfect free-kick from the edge of the box that went into the top-left corner.

Sevilla moved up to 54 points from 26 games, eight ahead of Betis in third but still behind Real Madrid, who lead with 60. After one win in their past five league games, Sevilla needed victory to keep alive their ambitions of winning the title for the first time since 1946. They stepped up with a convincing performance against the in-form Betis, who had been homing in on second place as their local rivals struggled.

“We will fight until the end,” Munir said. “I started on the bench and was enjoying how my teammates were playing. Going on and scoring is awesome. Winning a Seville derby is incredible; it will be a long Sunday night of celebration for our fans.”

In Madrid, with four goals from four shots Yéremy Pino became the first Villarreal player to score four times in a Spanish league game. Pino scored a hat-trick before half-time and added another goal in the second half of Villarreal’s 5-1 rout of Espanyol at home.

The 19-year-old Spain forward had