Next Saturday, 23rd of August 2014, the current Europa League winners Sevilla will take on Valencia at the emblematic Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán Stadium for the opening round of the 2014-15 Liga BBVA edition.

After winning the UEFA Europa League last season at the expenses of SL Benfica, Sevilla haven’t managed to start the new official campaign with the same rate of success, since they were defeated by the all-powerful Real Madrid at the UEFA Super Cup Final.

Sevilla lost some important players this season: the Croatian playmaker Rakitic joined Barcelona and the Spanish left back Alberto Moreno signed for Liverpool last week. Although they might be considered irreplaceable, Sevilla managed to bring in some quality footballers to mitigate their departure, such as the Polish midfielder Grzegorz Krychowiak, the  irreverent Argentinean midfielder Ever Banega and the Galician forward Iago Aspas, who arrived on loan from Liverpool.

Sevilla’s next weekend clash against Valencia is probably the most important match of the round and both sides will need to be at their best if they want to get something positive from it. The Andalusian team’s boss, Unai Emery, will certainly try a more offensive approach since he is playing at home and will present a diamond shaped 4-4-2, with Carlos Bacca and Deulofeu up at front.

As for Valencia, their first match of the season will certainly be far from easy, as they will face a team that is particularly dangerous when playing at home. The Comunidad Valenciana’s team has a new manager, the Portuguese Nuno Espirito Santo, who joined in from Rio Ave this Summer and he was responsible for a “small” revolution inside the team. Several players left the club and several other have joined, something that is giving the Portuguese head coach plenty to think about in order to get a solid basis for the future.

Los Che had a season to forget last campaign and they failed to grant a place at the European competitions this year, something that might in fact benefit them, since it will give Nuno Espirito Santo more time to prepare his team.

For the match against Sevilla, the Portuguese head coach will most certainly have all his players at his disposal and he will probably present his usual 4-3-3 system with two versatile players behind the team’s lonely centre forward.

The last time both sides met at Andalusia last term was on a UEFA Europa League’s match that Sevilla won by 2-0 with goals from Mbia and Carlos Bacca. Although history might repeat itself this time, one cannot rule out Valencia, since they are clearly improving as the matches go by.

Sevilla

Stats: W-3 L-2 D-0

Recent Form - WLLWW

Valencia

Stats: W-2 L-2 D-1

Recent Form - WLWDL

Possible Line-ups

Sevilla (4-4-2) - Beto - Coke - Fazio - Pareja - Carriço - Krychowiak - Denis Suárez - Iborra - Reyes - Bacca - Deulofeu

Valencia (4-3-3) - Diego Alves - Mustafi - Otamendi - Vezo - Barragan - Javi Fuego - Guardado - André Gomes - Rodrigo - Feghouli - Piatti

Prediction

Sevilla 2 Valencia 1