Next Wednesday, 4th of February 2015, the current World and European champions, Real Madrid, will entertain Sevilla at Santiago Bernabéu for round 16 of the Liga BBVA, on a match that should have taken place back in December but that was postponed because of Los Blancos’ participation in the FIFA Club World Cup.

After a pale and bland performance at Andalusia against Córdoba two weeks ago, Real Madrid built up a consistent and solid win against Real Sociedad last Saturday. The Bernabéu’s match started in a somewhat unconventional fashion with the visitors opening the score before the first minute of the match thanks to a powerful header from Elustondo. Real Madrid, however, reacted quickly and, just two minutes after the Basque team’s goal, they clinched the equalizer by the Colombian wonderboy James Rodríguez. Los Blancos, who were always the best team throughout the match, managed to net in the second goal just before the break by the Spanish international defender Sergio Ramos. After half-time, Real Madrid continued to control the match and the third and fourth goals arrived naturally.

Even without Cristiano Ronaldo, who remains suspended after the incident with Edimar at Córdoba, Los Blancos did good and controlled the match at their own will. Ancelotti’s 4-4-2 style, with Gareth Bale running free behind Karim Benzema, worked perfectly and, if it wasn’t for Rulli’s excellent performance, Real Madrid would have scored at least 7 or 8 goals.

For the upcoming difficult match against Sevilla, Real’s Italian manager, Carlo Ancelotti will still not be able to rely on Cristiano Ronaldo, who is suspended, and on Pepe and Modric, who remain sidelined due to injury.

As Sevilla, the Andalusian team has returned to wins at La Liga after overcoming Espanyol at Sanchez Pizjuan last Sunday. It was the third time in just ten days that Sevilla played against the Catalan team and the match somehow avenged the elimination from Copa del Rey that happened last Thursday.

Unai Emery’s boys, who currently occupy the fourth place of La Liga’s table, want to close the point gap that separates them from Atlético Madrid, but to achieve such thing, they need to leave Bernabéu with at least one point in their bags.

For that particular clash, Unai Emery will probably still not be able to rely on the contribution of Krychowiak, Tremoulinas, Reyes and Cristoro, all of them sidelined because of injury.

Despite of Sevilla’s excellent league campaign, they probably don’t have what is necessary to overcome Real Madrid at Bernabéu next Wednesday and cannot be seen as favourites for that match.

Real Madrid

Stats: W-4 L-0 D-1

Recent Form - WWWDW

Sevilla

Stats: W-3 L-2 D-0

Recent Form - WWLLW

Possible Line-ups

Real Madrid (4-3-3) - Casillas - Carvajal - Varane - Sergio Ramos - Marcelo - Khedira - Kroos - James Rodríguez - Isco - Bale - Benzema

Sevilla (4-2-3-1) - Beto - Navarro - Pareja - Carriço - Figueiras - Mbia - Iborra - Deulofeu - Vidal - Banega - Bacca

Prediction

Real Madrid 3 Sevilla 1