Osasuna head coach Jagoba Arrasate was looking to make it two wins out of two after starting his second spell with a 2-0 victory over Racing Santander, and the visitors should have taken a fourth-minute lead when the unmarked Flavien Boyomo headed off-target from a corner.
Sevilla’s Felix Correia was equally wasteful three minutes later when he skewed a volley wide from inside the box, before Ante Budimir spurned a similar chance at the other end.
Both teams had lacked a finishing touch until the hosts took a 24th-minute lead with a move of real quality, as Youssouf Fofana flicked Correia’s pass into Isaac Romero’s path and the forward arrowed his third goal of the season beyond Aitor Fernandez.
That strike moved Romero to the top of Sevilla’s goalscoring charts, with Los Nervionenses’ 15 La Liga goals to that point coming from 12 different players, and meant Osasuna have opened the scoring in just three of their last 13 matches. The hosts took control from that moment onwards, with Castrin blazing over the bar from 12 yards and Chidera Ejuke drawing a sprawling low save from Fernandez.
The half-time whistle appeared to come at a bad time for Sevilla, who lost some momentum during a scrappy start to the second period that was punctuated by fouls, to the increasing frustration of the home support. The hosts began to threaten again midway through the half, with Fernandez pushing Fofana’s long-range free-kick behind for a corner and Juan Iglesias volleying against the post moments later.
Fernandez made a brilliant save to keep out Kike Salas’ header as full-time approached, but Correia’s deflected shot made the points safe eight minutes from time with his second goal of the season.
The victory sees sixth-place Sevilla move to within two points of Real Sociedad in fifth, and extends their winning streak in home games against teams outside LaLiga’s ‘big three’ - Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid - to five matches. Meanwhile, Osasuna remain 12th and have now won just one of their last 12 away games (D2, L9).
Flashscore Man of the Match: Youssouf Fofana (Sevilla)