Sevilla and Wolfsburg don’t have any other choice but to win this match and stay in the quest for the UEFA Champions League‘s knockout stage. The Spanish and the German representatives are third and fourth in Group G and need three points to improve the prospects for the Round of 16. Both clubs didn’t have successful intros for Tuesday’s match. Sevilla played 2-2 with Alaves in La Liga, while Wolfsburg posted the same result in its Bundesliga challenge against Arminia in Bilefeld. The stakes are high, as well as the pressure, so we’ll see how each team responds.
Preview
Sevilla (-110) is a favorite, which is normal when Rojoblancos play at Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan. But, we need to stress out that Julen Lopetegui’s unit failed to triumph in the most recent two home games. Lille beat them in the Champions League, and this Saturday, Alaves got away with a point, as mentioned earlier.
Lopetegui prefers his team to play defensive-minded football, waiting for the rival’s mistake or some chance from the set piece. He created a system that works just fine, and even though Sevilla’s game isn’t appealing at all, the results are quite solid.
Opposite to their playstyle, the Rojoblancos saw both teams scoring and over 2.5 goals in three of four latest home matches. It is quite odd for this team, but it happened.
Wolfsburg (+333) had a nice stretch of three straight wins, which was broken in Bielefeld, where Arminia took the lead early on, was up 2-0, before a two-minute blitz the Wolves prepared. Wout Weghorst and Lukas Nmecha hit the back of the net in the 62nd and the 63rd minute.
The Germans aren’t playing well on the road. In the past five games, they have had three losses, a win, and a draw. In only but one of those events, the Wolves didn’t concede twice.
What is the reason for such pale and unstable defense, we still haven’t figured it out, and it appears that Florian Kohfeldt, too, doesn’t know how to fix this?
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Jesus Navas, Suso, and Youseff En-Nesyri are all out for the home team.
Bartosz Bialek, Niklas Klinger, William and Xaver Schlager won’t play for the Germans.
Head to Head
Sevilla dominated in Wolfsburg, but in the end, they got back home with only a point following a 1-1 draw. Renato Steffen scored for the home side, and with three minutes to go until the end of the regulation, Ivan Rakitic leveled the result from the penalty.
Prediction
A hard and robust game is ahead. There won’t be too much beauty here, because of the high stakes. Sevilla needs to attack, but still, Lopetegui is the kind of guy who isn’t willing to open up and pressure the rivals. Though, we still think that the Spanish club has better prospects to post a victory in this clash. The Rojoblancos have more experience in these games and a home-court advantage, which is usually a big deal.
Pick: Sevilla
Here are the previews for more UEFA Champions League games:
- Man City vs. PSG
- Sporting vs. Borussia Dortmund
- Besiktas vs. Ajax
- Barcelona vs. Benfica
- Man Utd vs Villarreal
- Chelsea vs. Juventus
Nikola Velickovic is a sports journalist who loves to write and read on all sports. Nikola contributes both news updates and functions as a sports breaking news writer at WagerBop.
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Email: nikola@wagerbop.com
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