Next Saturday, 30th of August 2014, the current UEFA Europa League holders, Sevilla, will travel to Catalunya to measure forces with Espanyol at Cornella-El Prat Stadium for the second round of the Liga BBVA.

Sevilla had a somewhat slow start at La Liga this season, as they conceded a home draw against the renewed Valencia from Nuno Espirito Santo on the dying moments of the match. It wasn’t by any means the best performance Sevilla have put up recently as the team looked poorly organized and lacking ideas in the midfield line, especially during the first-half. Unai Emery, who admitted at the end of the match that the visitors were better than his team during some periods of the match, experimented with a 4-2-3-1 style with Carriço playing as a centre back and with Vitolo, Suárez and Vidal supporting the Colombian striker, Carlos Bacca, up in the front. His approach fell short of expectations, since the team’s first-half performance was no more than mediocre. Emery managed to mitigate that during the break and Sevilla looked plenty more convincing for a great deal of the second-half until they decided to fall back and defend their narrow result on the dying moments of match, during which they were surprised by a mighty Valencia side that grabbed the equalizer thanks to a goal from Lucas Orban on the 88th minute.

For the match against Espanyol, Unai Emery is not yet certain if he will be able to count on the Portuguese international goalkeeper Beto, who was substituted on the early moments of Sevilla’s last weekend match due to injury.

As for Espanyol, the clash against the Andalusia team will be their first home match of the season after last weekend’s late draw at Almeria. Sergio González’s boys might consider themselves lucky after they managed to grant a very late equalizer at Estadio de los Juegos Mediterráneos, playing with just ten men since Arbilla was shown the red card still during the first-half. Espanyol’s experienced captain, Sergio Garcia, levelled the game on the 103rd minute and offered the Periquitos an important draw in a match where, despite being only with ten men, they had fairly good opportunities to score.

For their match against Sevilla next Saturday, Sergio González will not be able to rely on the contribution of the Spanish defender Arbilla, who is suspended.

When both sides went head-to-head at Cornella-El Prat last term, the visitors granted a comfortable 3-1 win thanks to goals from Fazio, Vitolo and Bacca. Despite their unconvincing recent performances, Sevilla are favourites to win a match that will be the official home debut of Sergio González at the helm of Espanyol.

Espanyol

Stats: W-2 L-1 D-2

Recent Form - DWLDW

Sevilla

Stats: W-2 L-2 D-1

Recent Form - DWLLW

Possible Line-ups

Espanyol (4-2-3-1) - Casilla - Mattioni - Colotto - González - Álvarez - Sánchez - López - Sevilla - Sergio Garcia - Montañés - Caicedo

Sevilla (4-2-3-1) - Barbosa  - Coke - Pareja - Carriço - Navarro - Krychowiak - Denis Suárez - Iborra - Vidal - Vitolo - Bacca

Prediction

Espanyol 1 Sevilla 1