Sevilla vs Slavia Prague Predictions

Europa League specialists Sevilla, who’ve won this competition three times in the last five years, made light work of getting past Italian outfit Lazio in the previous round, so they ought to come into this fixture feeling confident. The Spaniards will be looking to build a lead ahead of the second leg in the Czech Republic.

Thursday’s Spanish hosts made light work of coming through the groups, while they could hardly have been easier winners against Lazio in the first knockout round. Pablo Machín’s troops went to Rome in the first leg and returned with a single-goal aggregate lead, though their performance merited considerably more. In that first leg, Sevilla dominated from start to finish, as they clocked 2.37 expected goals for and conceded just 0.56. They were also in command in the second leg too. A repeat of their last-32 effort would almost certainly be enough for Los Rojiblancos to build a convincing lead ahead of the second leg.

If we condense Sevilla’s performance in this competition down to what they’ve done at this venue, then it becomes even easier to feel that they’re going to do well on Thursday evening. Since the start of the group stages, Machín’s men have averaged four goals per game and have conceded a measly average of 0.25. Their averages of 2.41 expected goals for and 0.89 against suggest that they’ve not been quite as menacing as the previous numbers would have us believe, though such numbers do show that Sevilla have looked menacing at both ends of the pitch when playing at Ramon Sanchez-Pizjuan in this competition.

Slavia Praha did score four goals on the road against a very open-looking Genk side in the last-32, though they may struggle to repeat that effort against Sevilla. Their effort in Belgium was a pleasing one, and that game did show that the Czech side are no mugs, but if we go back and look at their travelling matches during the group, then it’s easy to feel that a replication in Andalusia is unlikely.

During the groups, Slavia scored just one goal on the road, while they mustered a rather poor expected goals for average of just 0.80. Moreover, when they went away to face Bordeaux, they scored none, conceded twice, recorded just 0.63 expected goals for and surrendered 1.51. Their performance on that occasion doesn’t exactly suggest that the Czech’s will make tremendous headway against a side of Sevilla’s calibre.

To be quite honest, Sevilla have been handed an excellent opportunity to put themselves into the next round. As they have done throughout the competition, the Andalusians are fancied to make full use of the home advantage in this first leg, and punters can profit by backing ‘Sevilla to Score Over 2.5 Goals’. The disparity in quality between the two should come to the fore right from the word go, which should allow Machín’s men to hit the kind of attacking form that saw them score at least three goals in each of their three group matches at this venue.