Sevilla have scraped into the Champions League by the skin of their teeth as a stoppage time winner from youngster Rodri gave the club a 3-2 victory over Almeria to cement them the coveted fourth place.

Eyebrows were raised as the youngster was brought on a substitute by manager Antonio Álvarez ahead of Brazilian international Luis Fabiano.

photo credit: nicknbecka

For those of you who do not know what the silver fox is, it is a term used to describe an older gentleman that still is on the top of his game. For example Brett Favre is often referred to as the silver fox of the NFL. This list is of the La Liga players that have impressed so far this year despite being over 34 years of age.

Athletic Bilbao 1 - 0 Real Madrid
(1-0) 2' Llorente
Athletic Bilbao came out all guns blazing as they struck the post twice and scored the decisive goal inside the first two minutes to send Real Madrid crashing to a demoralising defeat. Fernando Llorente headed in from an early corner after Lass had directed the ball into his path, rewarding Bilbao for a riproaring start that had the Madridistas rocking.

Fresh from a brilliant display in the league on Sunday night against Valencia, Barcelona welcome Stuttgart to the Nou Camp tonight for the return fixture of their knockout stage tie. After drawing 1-1 in Germany, Barcelona have the advantage of progressing to the quarter final in virtue of the away goal rule.

It was supposed to be a historic night for Sevilla. The first time they reached the last eight of the most pretigious competition in European football. Alvaro Negredo had given them the away goal, and with CSKA Moscow supposedly one of the weaker teams left in the Champions League, the second leg at the Sanchez Pizjuan was a one-way ticket to the holy grail.

Spanish goalie has onomatopoeic name Andres Palop's push to get into Spain's gymnastics squad fell flat on its face this weekend. The Sevilla goalkeeper was swinging from his crossbar, as keeper's are wont to do, when he came crashing back to the ground with quite a thud. His attempts to pretend nothing had happened didn't wash with [.

El arquero del Sevilla, Andres Plop Palop, quizo impresionar a los espectadores con sus movimientos de gimnasia colgandose del arco pero por lucido se solto y cayo como saco de papas. Palop trato de disimular la caida pero los hinchas detras del arco le dejaron saber que lo vieron hacer el ridiculo.

Sevilla's captain Andres Palop came back to earth with a thump after swinging on his crossbar and tangling his feet in the net...

Click here to view the embedded video.

A cheeky effort from a good 40 yards out from Fernando of Malaga saw Palop scrambling and, well, the rest is there for you to see.

"NINO, NINO, NINO!" chanted Los Chicharreros in the Estadio Heliodoro Rodríguez López. When shouted aloud, the chant sounded like an onrushing ambulance through a traffic-jammed street, and for Getafe, who fell victim to the brilliance of Nino, they needed the assistance of EMT workers.

El arquero del Sevilla, Andres Plop Palop, quizo impresionar a los espectadores con sus movimientos de gimnasia colgandose del arco pero por lucido se solto y cayo como saco de papas. Palop trato de disimular la caida pero los hinchas detras del arco le dejaron saber que lo vieron hacer el ridiculo.

One of the most anticipated matches in the Liga turned out to be as exciting as promised.

Earlier it seemed as if Barca would walk right through Sevilla in their home ground of Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán as the trio of Messi, Bojan, and Pedro put Barca 3-0. Messi's first goal just beats being offside by a hair but that was enough for the maestro.

Barcelona experienced their first taste of defeat this season yesterday when they were beaten 3-1 by Sevilla in the first leg of the Spanish Supercup. Playing infront of their home crowd at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan Stadium, Sevilla were cruising to victory in the 73rd minute when Freddie Kanoute put the home team in the lead for the first time.

There was going to be a sixth rule to fix football, but the punishment was deemed too draconian: diving would be rewarded with a gruesome, horrific, unthinkable death, only to be revived so the perpetrator can be killed again.

Andres Palop would not have escaped such punishment.

Though it's also hard to fault someone for wanting to be more like Iker.

There was going to be a sixth rule to fix football, but the punishment was deemed too draconian: diving would be rewarded with a gruesome, horrific, unthinkable death, only to be revived so the perpetrator can be killed again.

Andres Palop would not have escaped such punishment.

Though it's also hard to fault someone for wanting to be more like Iker.

[101gg]

Probably not the world's most surprising headline, but alas Xavi thinks Lionel Messi is so excellent he doesn't even need words.

During this weekend's Supercopa win Xavi threaded a ball so divinely all the garmentmakers in the land up and quit out of shame. This thread left Lionel all alone with Andres Palop, and when Xavi saw this (:38 second mark from the behind-goal angle) he simply.

Matheus gets the party started after Andres Palop who had a nightmare in goal spills the ball and the Brazilian is on hand to blast it home. Braga goes two up through fellow Brazilian, Rodrigo Lima. Sevilla answer through Luis Fabiano and Jesus Navas to draw level.

Undaunted, Braga forge ahead as Lima scores two more to complete his hat trick.

Sevilla's Europa League Odds suffered another set-back as they lost their opening Group J game of the tournament. The Spanish side are playing in this competition after losing to Portuguese club Braga, in the Champions League qualifying round.
If Sevilla thought the Europa League would provide a much easier proposition then they were mistaken.

It's difficult to say with absolute certainly how many great sides Sir Alex Ferguson has built in his near quarter century at Old Trafford because one has often tended to morph into another but it's...
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Great news for Sevilla as both Federico Fazio and Jesus Navas are both back into full training again, with the club, after having spent time away while nursing an injury.

Jesus Navas has been struggling a lot since the start of the season, as he was facing issues with his ankle. Although at one point it looked like he may have to go under knife, to get his ankle repaired, thankfully it wasn't as bad as they expected which would have seen him out of action for 6 weeks.

MADRID, Spain — Argentine international winger Angel di Maria scored a vital 77th minute winner as 10-man Real Madrid defeated Sevilla 1-0 at the Santiago Bernabeu on Sunday to close to within two points of league leaders Barcelona ahead of the Christmas break. The 22-year-old di Maria, a 25-million-euro summer signing from Benfica, squeezed a [.