Sevilla against Espanyol, fifth against last, or: Champions League hopes against relegation anxiety. While some, Sevilla, knock on the gate to the premier class, others, Espanyol, are desperately trying to escape the relegation ghost.
Espanyol Barcelona has invested heavily in this in the winter – more precisely, 40 million euros in four players (Raul de Tomas, Adrian Embarba, Leandro Cabrera and Oier Olazabal). This is made possible by a Chinese president named Chen Yansheng and his Rastar Group. Espanyol has thus spent more than any other club in Spain, so the relegation should be prevented literally at all costs.
But Sevilla also invested in the winter, committed to a striker for a whopping 20 million Youssef En-Nesyri from Leganes. Youssef En-Nesyri should shoot the Andalusians to Europe, the goal is of course the Champions League. They are currently tied for fifth place with fourth-placed Atletico Madrid – while Atleti has to play a difficult game in Valencia, Sevilla have the supposedly easy home game against the bottom of the table Espanyol in front of their chest.
It is understandable that the bookmakers prefer the home team. If you want an overview of the best betting odds, you can find them in our betting base odds comparison.
Seville:
Sevilla played a game against a relegation team last weekend – and lost. At Celta Vigo there was a bitter 1: 2 defeat after 1: 0 lead, the decisive goal was scored in the 90th minute.
The Andalusians, for example, missed to pile up a small cushion in fifth place, even slipped into this place, since rival Atletico won against Granada at the same time. 20 million new signing En-Nesyri even scored his first goal for Seville in Vigo, alone, it shouldn’t be enough.
En-Nesyri – like AC Milan winger Suso – was not signed for no reason. Sports director Monchi noticed that the shoe is pressing in the storm: Sevilla have only scored 29 goals in 23 games so far, a little bit for a team that has CL ambitions.
But the newcomers were still unable to help stabilize the fickle team. Victory, draw and loss alternate regularly, the record of the last eight games is: 2 wins / 3 draws / 3 losses.
The Andalusians have not won for three home games, so a home win is high time again, and if not against the bottom of the table, against whom?
Espanyol Barcelona:
Sevilla’s new signing was accurate in the last game, as was his counterpart on the opposite side: Espanyol also won Raul de Tomas from Benfica Lisbon for 20 million euros – an absolute stroke of luck.
Not only did de Tomas score in the last game for the hugely important 1-0 win against their relegation candidate Mallorca, the Spaniard has so far scored one goal for his new club in every league game: four games, four goals – an impressive record of the new man who becomes a savior and talisman.
His goals made a decisive contribution to the fact that Espanyol scored a whopping seven points from these four games – so that he climbed close to the saving bank again. Although the Catalans are still in the last place on which they have been since matchday 16, they are tied with Leganes and Mallorca, who are in 19th and 18th place, while Celta Vigo is only two points away in 17th place ,
So if the coup succeeds and Espanyol wins at favorites Sevilla in Sanchez Pizjuan, the team of new coach Abelardo could even climb out of the relegation zone.
Appearances under Abelardo have improved a lot, the form curve has been up since the former FC Barcelona defender joined city rival Espanyol in late December. With him on the sidelines, there was only one bankruptcy in five games.
Abelardo is known for the fact that his team acts as a unit and is so difficult to beat, even if the performances do not make everyone tongue-in-cheek in football. But it is precisely this resilience that is required in the relegation battle – and could come into play against Sevilla on Sunday. If you trust the Pericos to both, i.e. draw or away win, you should think about a tip on the double chance at Sevilla vs Espanyol.
