Sevilla's Alvaro Negredo (L) fights for the ball with Atletico Madrid's Joao Miranda (C) and Juanfran during their Spanish King's Cup semifinal first leg match at Vicente Calderon Stadium in Madrid Thursday. — Reuters MADRID — Diego Costa scored two penalties to give 10-man Atletico Madrid a 2-1 home win over nine-man Sevilla Thursday in an incident-packed first leg of their Copa del Rey semifinal that featured three penalties from handballs. The Brazilian forward filled in nicely for injured top scorer Radamel Falcao, who has been out since Jan. 20, by triggering both of Sevilla's dismissals in addition to taking his brace. “Like the rest of my teammates, I just tried to give it my all,” he said. “The most important thing is that we did our job and got the goals. Now we have to think about winning the second game as well.” Atletico has won all 19 games at its Vicente Calderon stadium this season across all competitions. Barcelona drew 1-1 at Real Madrid on Wednesday in the opening match of the other semifinal. The return legs for both ties will be played in the last week of February. The opening half hour produced more fouls than flowing play, with Atletico getting the better part of the rough-and-tumble start before it began to turn its possession into clear scoring chances. Sevilla goalkeeper Antonio “Beto” Bastos, playing his first game since arriving Wednesday from Sporting Braga, saved Jorge “Koke” Resurrecion's low strike before Adrian Lopez and Diego Costa both missed from close. Sevilla, meanwhile, was limited to a long-range try from Alvaro Negredo that goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois tipped over his bar. The game came alive in the second half when both defenses had trouble keeping their hands off the ball. Diego Costa earned and converted his first spot kick in the 49th minute when Sevilla's Emir Spahic was shown his second yellow card after he fell in the box and hit the ball with his arm. Negredo got Sevilla a valuable away goal with a 56th minute penalty after Atletico defender Diego Godin was shown a straight red card for using his arm to block Negredo's chip shot. Having pulled level both in goals and men, Sevilla momentarily took control for the first time in the match. But Diego Costa netted the winner from the spot in the 71st after Fernando Navarro handled the ball in similar fashion to Spahic, touching it after going down in front of his goal. Navarro was then sent off in the 85th for a bad tackle on Diego Costa. Suarez to stay at Liverpool Liverpool's Uruguayan striker Luis Suarez has declared that he will not leave the club even if they fail to qualify for the Champions League this season.Brendan Rodgers' side are currently seven points below the top four and look destined for a fourth consecutive season without a place among Europe's elite. Suarez has enjoyed a fine campaign and is currently the Premier League's second-highest scorer with 17 goals, but he says he has no desire to look elsewhere. “I will wait until the end of the season and see how we are doing,” he told Friday's edition of British newspaper the Daily Mail. “We won't know until then how we are doing and what our position is, so I am prepared to wait until that time. But I want to say now that, if you want to know what will happen to me if we don't qualify for the Champions League, then I will say this: I have a contract with Liverpool and I am very happy here. I will stay.” Suarez also spoke in praise of Liverpool manager Rodgers, who has consistently backed the striker amid a spate of controversial incidents this season. The former Ajax striker has received criticism for diving this season and was also responsible for scoring a contentious winning goal in an FA Cup tie at non-league Mansfield Town after blocking the ball with his hand. “I have much to thank Brendan for and he knows how much I appreciate this,” said Suarez. — Agencies
