Madrid: Sevilla was held to a 1-1 home draw against Real Sociedad on Friday, missing another chance to move closer to third-placed Atletico Madrid in the Spanish league.
Pablo Sarabia put Sevilla ahead just before halftime but Carlos Vela equalised for Real Sociedad after a defence blunder in the 61st.
Sevilla wasn’t able to regain the lead despite playing with an extra man from the 79th as Real Sociedad midfielder David Zurutuza was sent off after being shown a second yellow card.
“Once again we created a lot of chances but weren’t able to capitalise on them,” Sarabia said.
Sevilla, which was coming off a loss at Malaga, stayed with 69 points with two games to go, two points behind Atletico, which hosts Eibar on Saturday.
The third-placed team automatically qualifies for the Champions League, while the fourth-placed club has to go through a playoff.
Real Sociedad, which was coming off three straight wins, is seventh with 62 points and remains in contention for a Europa League spot.
“We earned an important point going into these last few matches,” Vela said. In Cologne, Germany, Anthony Modeste scored twice as Cologne ended Werder Bremen’s 11-game unbeaten run with a 4-3 win to take the visitors’ sixth-place spot in the Bundesliga.
Both sides have 45 points but Cologne leads on goal difference and occupies the last place to guarantee European qualification ahead of the rest of the 32nd round, after which two rounds remain.
“The team delivered in a brilliant way,” Cologne sporting director Joerg Schmadtke said.
Modeste twice went close before breaking the deadlock in the 13th minute from close range.
Leonardo Bittencourt made it 2-0 shortly afterward only for Fin Bartels to pull one back with the outside of his boot, and Theodor Gebre Selassie equalised six minutes later. Both Bremen goals were set up by Zlatko Junuzovic.
But there was still time before the break for Modeste to set up Simon Zoller, and the French forward claimed his second goal right after the interval.
Modeste tried celebrating his 25th goal of the season with Cologne’s mascot, a goat, before Bartels set up Serge Gnabry to score on his return from injury with a half-hour to play.
It proved an exciting finale. Modeste should have sealed the win on a break with five minutes with only the Bremen ‘keeper to beat.
Timo Horn was also called into action at the other end as Bremen kept pushing for the equaliser. Veteran striker Claudio Pizarro thought he had equalised but the goal was rightly ruled out for offside.
“We threw everything into it. With a bit of luck it would have been 4-4,” Bartels said.
