Defeat at Elche completes painful week for Sevilla
(Reuters) - Sevilla slumped to a surprise 2-1 defeat at struggling Elche in La Liga on Saturday to complete a miserable week of three consecutive losses.
Julen Lopetegui's side were reeling from their Copa del Rey semi-final elimination by Barcelona on Wednesday and fell behind in the 70th minute when Raul Guti appeared unmarked in the box to smash home a cross after Elche attacked following a throw in.
Guido Carrillo doubled Elche's lead six minutes later, heading a free kick in off the post and over the line before Sevilla keeper Tomas Vaclik could get to the ball.
Luuk de Jong pulled one back for Sevilla in the 90th minute and they had five additional minutes to find an equaliser but they were beaten again after last week's 2-0 league loss to Barcelona and their 3-0 Cup defeat at Barca in the second leg at the Camp Nou, having won the first leg 2-0.
Sevilla are fourth in the standings on 48 points, 10 behind leaders Atletico Madrid who face Real Madrid on Sunday.
Elche climbed out of the relegation zone to go 17th on 24 points.
Sevilla head to Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League on Tuesday with the daunting task of overturning a 3-2 deficit from the first leg of their last-16 tie.
"I'm angry with our performance, we were awful, we lacked spirit," said Lopetegui.
"We've lost a game that we wanted to win, we knew our opponents' strong points but we made a very bad start to the game and in the second half they punished us dearly with two half chances."
Sevilla defender Sergi Gomez said his side had dragged their disappointment from their Cup elimination into the game.
"We were devastated from what happened the other day and I'm certain it had an influence on us. It was very tough but it's no excuse. We didn't play how we wanted to but we have to move on quickly because we have another huge game next," he said.
(This story corrects fifth para to say Atletico play Real Madrid on Sunday)
(Reporting by Richard Martin, editing by Ed Osmond)
