Sevilla 2 Eibar 0: Sampaoli's side move up to second
Pablo Sarabia scored a volley and Vitolo added a late second as Sevilla beat Eibar to go second in LaLiga.
Sevilla moved above Barcelona into second place in LaLiga after goals from Pablo Sarabia and Vitolo earned them a 2-0 victory over Eibar at Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan.
Jorge Sampaoli's side have now won seven of their last nine league games to pile the pressure on Barca and move one point ahead of Luis Enrique's men, who can push them back into third by beating Leganes at Camp Nou on Sunday.
Leaders Real Madrid, who beat Espanyol earlier on Saturday, are three points clear of Sevilla and also have two games in hand.
After Eibar made a lively start to the game, with Adrian Gonzalez and Florian Lejeune both firing wide in the early stages, Sevilla began to assert themselves as Stevan Jovetic and Franco Vazquez saw more of the ball.
The breakthrough arrived after 30 minutes when a long ball forward found Jovetic, whose trickery took him into the penalty area before he crossed for Sarabia to calmly volley into the corner with his instep.
3 - Stevan Jovetic has provided more assists in six league games for (3) than in 31 Serie A games for Inter (2). Rebirth February 18, 2017
Jovetic squandered a chance to double Sevilla's lead when he went one-on-one with Eibar goalkeeper Yoel and the visitors pressed for an equaliser in a high-tempo second half.
The game swung from end to end in the closing stages and was not settled until the first minute of stoppage-time when Jovetic raced clear before unselfishly squaring to Vitolo to wrap up a hard-earned three points.
Get FourFourTwo Newsletter
The best features, fun and footballing quizzes, straight to your inbox every week.
‘Arteta, Alonso, Emery, me… none of us were physical players – we needed the understanding of the game. That probably helped us move into management’: Premier League boss reveals reasons for natural career progression
‘England have the players to win the World Cup – it’ll be tough for Thomas Tuchel to do a bad job, with the squad he has at his disposal’ Former Three Lions winger backs new boss after gentle qualifying draw