Next Saturday, 3rd of January 2015, a free-falling Celta de Vigo will travel to Andalusia to measure forces with a strong Sevilla at Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan for round 17 of the Spanish Liga BBVA, a match during which the visitors will seek to put an end on their recent poor streak of results and the home side, on the other hand, will try keep track of their closest contenders at the first half of the table.

Life hasn’t been easy both for Celta de Vigo and their manager Eduardo “Toto” Berizzo. After a very promising season start, which included a historical win at Camp Nou, Los Celestes embarked on a complicated streak of bad results that started precisely after defeating Barcelona. Since that remarkable win and utterly inspired performance, Celta have not won a single league match and the only time they experienced the sweet taste of winning was against Las Palmas for a Copa del Rey match in the middle of December.

Two weeks ago, Celta sucumbed at home against a modest Almeria team that managed to snatch the three points during their visit to Balaidos despite spending most of the match in their own half defending. Celta usually produces a fair share of goal chances but, for reasons unknown, they have been failing to materialize them.

The upcoming match against Sevilla is probably not the best for Celta to start recovering the time they have lost so far but if they want to invert their current negative situation, they need  to at least aim for a draw. For that particular clash, Toto Berizzo will not be able to rely on the contribution of the Argentinean forward Larrivey, who is suspended for four matches, and of Oubina, who is still recovering from injury.

As for Sevilla, the current UEFA Europa League holders have been experiencing some ups and downs so far this season but they still remain a very strong team, especially when playing at home. Surprisingly enough, Sevilla failed to win their latest league home clash against the mighty Eibar, who left Sanchez Pizjuan with a precious point in their bags.

Given the recent circumstances, Sevilla, who only have been defeated three times so far this season, are firm favourites for the clash against Celta, who, on the other hand, need to search for the inspiration that led them to victory against Barça, in order to take something positive from next Saturday’s match.

Sevilla

Stats: W-4 L-0 D-1

Recent Form - DWWWW

Celta

Stats: W-1 L-4 D-0

Recent Form - LWLLL

Possible Line-ups

Sevilla (4-2-3-1) - Beto - Coke - Pareja - Carriço - Figueiras - Krychowiak - Mbia - Vitolo - Reyes - Banega - Bacca

Celta de Vigo (4-3-3) - Sérgio Álvarez - Jonny - Fontas - Cabral - Mallo - Augusto - Radoja - Krohn Dehli - Orellana - Nolito - Charles

Prediction

Sevilla 1 Celta de Vigo 1