Sevilla FC | Valencia CF |
Voro's first game in charge of Valencia CF was a huge success, he's always brought in a temporary boost to the team and done well in his short coaching stints. While some people may want to see him take a permanent coaching role, he's distanced himself from such an option, saying that his mandate is 4 matches and that's it. After all he is not a coach, he's never really dabbled in it other than when he's had to lead the team when called upon.
Valencia CF match against Real Valladolid was complex, even though the score would make it seem like it was an easy win for the team, it really wasn't. In fact I'd say in the first 30 minutes of the match Real Valladolid were the better team, not by much, but had more ball possession, had more chances and were pushing for a goal with commitment and drive. In fact in the match report when I describe the match I said that VCF has to improve or even a draw would be a hard result to obtain.
Thankfully Maxi Gomez decided to show up, one of the very rare things this season and scored two goals from two chances to put Valencia CF in a comfortable position. Both teams had chances, though again in a long time I think our defense did quite good, even Diakhaby who's been very error prone had a good game and did not make even one mistake.
Against Sevilla FC it is going to be a different story though, they have been really solid this season and it shows, they are literally fighting with the big 3 and are in a position to even potentially win the league title. They are in the fight and just last match they drew with Real Madrid away from home and they had a serious chance to win the match after leading 1-2 for most of the match, but Real Madrid pulled one back in in the 94th minute. So sufficive to say they are a very good team, who've been playing some amazing football this season and are rightfully competing with the big 3.
Sevilla FC coach Lopetegui was more modest though, he praised Valencia CF and said that its a strong team, the fasters team in the league with one of the fastest counter attacks. He is mentioning the report that came out recently where Valencia CF is the best team in the league in running above 24km/h for the longest time. So physically the players are extremely prepared and Correia is one of the fasters players in the league according to La Liga data.
With Valencia CF scooping all 3 points against a relegation rival, Voro and the players will be feeling relief going into this match, the team can play with a bit more confidence knowing that relegation at this point is extremely unlikely, we would have to lose all 3 matches and Valladolid would have to win all 3 of theirs for VCF to actually get in the relegation zone, so very very unlikely.
I think Voro is going to start this match with the same setup as last one's, but I do expect a small change, I expect to see Racic play instead of Kang-In in order to have a more stable midfield, with Soler likely to be positioned slightly further up, as he does seems to be able create great chances when he is playing further up the field and isn't bogged down with so much defensive duties.
 Sevilla FC | Stat name |  Valencia CF |
|---|---|---|
| 35 | Games | 35 |
| 51 | Goals | 46 |
| 29 | Goals lost | 51 |
| 63% (22) | Wins | 26% (9) |
| 63% (5) | Draws | 26% (12) |
| 23% (8) | Defeats | 40% (14) |
| 1.46 | Goals per game | 1.31 |
| 0.83 | Goals lost per game | 1.46 |
| 15 (43%) | Clean sheets | 6 (17%) |
| 8.44 | Corners per game | 9.44 |
| 4.38 | Corners for per game | 4.38 |
| 4.06 | Corners against per game | 5.06 |
| 61.44% | Ball possession | 47.32% |
| 11.74 | Shots avg | 10.47 |
| 3.68 | Shots on goal avg | 3.68 |
| 1.76 | Offsides avg | 2.41 |
| 450.44 | Passes avg | 269.32 |
| 85.24% | Completed passes | 76.61% |
| 2.11 (74) | Yellow cards avg | 2.23 (78) |
| 0.03 (1) | Red cards avg | 0.14 (5) |
Valencia CF Squad: Cillessen, Paulista, Hugo, Diakhaby; Correia, Wass, Racic, Gaya; Guedes, Soler, Maxi.
Winning Probability: Sevilla FC 70%, Draw 15%, Valencia CF 15%
Result Prediction: Sevilla FC 3-2 Valencia CF
The result from last match might be convincing, but the play wasn't all that crisp. VCF struggled for possession and did have quite a bit of wasted chances as well. Sevilla FC on the other hand have been very solid throughout the whole season and even though they played a tough match against Real Madrid I expect them to be close to their max strength. Both teams usually play matches with over 2 goals scored, and neither team is particularly tight defensively, so I expect quite a bit of goals in this match. If you are a betting man bet on 2+ goals, more likely 3 or more, I think its fairly reasonable to bet on both teams to score, but Sevilla does have higher chance to win. I'm hoping personally for a 2-2 draw with them or something like that, but I a loss would not surprise me a bit.