Sevilla vs Espanyol Prediction, Betting Tips & Preview

Preview

Joel Amorim Dec 28, 2015 @ 02:08 am

Next Wednesday, 30th of December 2015, Espanyol will travel to Andalusia to measure forces with Sevilla at the emblematic Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan for Round 17 of the Spanish Liga BBVA.

It wasn’t an easy task, but Constantin Galca made it possible. The former Romanian international and Espanyol’s midfielder returned to Catalunya two weeks ago to take the helm of the Periquitos and so far he has managed to turn the team’s bad luck around. A 2-1 win over Levante for the Copa del Rey, which allowed his team to proceed to the next round of the competition, and a narrow, but deserved, home win against UD Las Palmas are Galca’s record until now in his return to a team that he represented as a player from 1997 to 2001. Espanyol seemed to have somewhat stagnated under the stewardship of Sergio González and there was an urgent need for change at the Catalunya club. Galca, a confessed admired of possession based attacking football, is willing to drastically change Espanyol’s style of play and in his first two matches as a head coach there were already glimpses of that particular style of play.

The upcoming fixture against Sevilla will be Galca’s first test away from Cornellà El-Prat and will most certainly not be an easy one. For that particular clash, the Romanian head coach will not be able to rely on the services of Pape Diop, who is currently suspended.

As for Sevilla, the Andalusian team is slowly recovering from their poor league start and they are already in the 8th place of the table just one point behind Athletic Bilbao, who are currently in the 7th place.

Last time out, Sevilla failed to get anything better than a goalless draw from their local derby against Real Bétis, but managed anyway to extend their undefeated streak to seven competitive matches.

For next Wednesday’s clash against Espanyol, Unai Emery will not be able to rely on the contribution of the Polish powerful defensive midfielder Grzegorz Krychowiak, who is currently suspended. Nico Pareja and Marco Andreolli will also miss out there due to injury.

Sevilla

Stats: W-3 L-0 D-2

Recent Form - DWWWD

Espanyol

Stats: W-2 L-1 D-2

Recent Form - WWLDD

Possible Line-ups

Sevilla (4-2-3-1) - Rico - Mariano - Rami - Kolodziejczak - Tremoulinas - Iborra - Krohn-Dehli - Banega - Vitolo - Konoplyanka - Gameiro

Espanyol (4-2-3-1) - Pau - Lopez - Gonzalez - Roco - Duarte - Abraham - Sánchez - Pérez - Asensio - Caicedo - Moreno

Injury List / Suspended Players

Sevilla - Andreolli (inj) - Parejo (inj) - Krychowiak (sus)

Espanyol - Diop (sus)

Head-to-head matches:

League Positions