Sevilla hosts Athletic Bilbao in round 19 of Spanish LaLiga. The match will be played on Friday, January 3rd at Estadio Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán (Sevilla)
The game of Sevillians in the main championship of Spain has recently begun to improve. Currently, the team takes third place in the standings, but it was in the middle of the standings before that. Sevilla has good goal difference, even though these statistics were spoiled at the beginning of the season. Now the team has ten wins, four draws and as many defeats. Sevilla played the last match in Mallorca and managed to win with a 2-0 score. In addition to the national championship, the Sevillians do not relax in the international arena. The group stage of the Europa League ended not so long ago. Sevilla managed to take first place in Group A and advanced to the playoffs. The team didn’t have any particular problems. It won five games in a row and relaxed only in the last match, having lost to APOEL. It is a pity that such statistics were spoiled. During the group stage, Sevilla conceded only three goals. One goal was scored in the last match, and an outsider of the group, Dudelange, managed to score twice. As you see, Sevilla did not have any particular difficulties in the international arena, which is probably why it managed to correct the results in LaLiga.
Last season, Athletic lacked just one victory to qualify for the European Cups. It took eighth place and was unable to cope with the same Sevilla in the last match (0:2). Therefore, the team remained overboard of the international tournament. But it seemed to give Athletic an additional incentive because the team is playing very well now. Currently, the club is on the seventh line, one line below the Euro Cup zone. The team needs only a couple of points to move up. Of course, this is a matter of time since the club is quite active, and it is not going to stop halfway. Athletic has a very good line of defense, and I can even say more - it is one of the best among all participants in the championship. Therefore, the club never had any problems with the defense. But the flaw in the attack remained. The coaching staff didn’t manage to fix this problem during the summer off-season. It is difficult to play without an attacking line, and the defenders are taking additional risks. In the last match, Athletic played against Real Madrid. Teams tied without a single goal scored (0: 0). The previous match with Eibar ended with the same result.
The bookmakers claim that Sevilla will win this game and confirm this with a lower coefficient. Indeed, Sevilla has every chance of winning. It has gained good momentum, and everything is fine in the attack, and even more so in defense. Besides, it will play this game at home. Athletic is also good this season, but the club has a too weak attack that will not manage to breach the strong defense of its rival.
Prediction for the match: Sevilla to win
