Ujpesti vs Sevilla Predictions, Betting Tips and Match Previews

Sevilla are the most successful team in this competition’s history and they will have high hopes of making good progress again this term. The qualifying rounds will essentially form part of their pre-season as they gear up for the Spanish Super Cup and new term in La Liga. They should have little trouble progressing past Ujpest this Thursday and into the UEFA Europa League 3rd Qualifying Round where they would play Zalgiris or Vaduz.

That should be another very winnable tie and they made easy work of Ujpest in the 1st Leg. The 1st Half sending off of visiting defender Branko Pauljević certainly helped as Sevilla cruised to a 4-0 win in Pablo Machin’s first game as Sevilla boss. He would have been pleased with what he saw and could rotate his team in the 2nd Leg with a fairly large squad at his disposal.

If anything Sevilla should be even stronger here, given that was their first competitive run-out of the new season and they may have been short on match sharpness with Spanish teams rarely starting their campaigns this early. They have a point to prove this term having finished below city rivals Betis last season and down in 7th but Machin has the makings of a good appointment, having done a brilliant job with Girona in recent years.

Ujpest meanwhile will know they have virtually no chance of turning this tie around but will relish the opportunity to take on elite European opposition in front of their own fans. They’ve made a poor start to the new Hungarian league season too with just 1 point from their opening 2 matches, with their only really positive performance this term coming in the 2nd Leg of the last round when they won 4-0 against Neftçi to totally overturn a 3-1 1st Leg deficit.

A repeat is unlikely here though. Sevilla may well make several changes to the team that played last week but that won’t necessarily mean a weaker starting eleven. They left the likes of Ever Banega and Simon Kjaer on the bench last week with the duo late returning back following World Cup commitments. They could both get starts here and Argentine international Banega is in many ways Sevilla’s most important player so they should have plenty of creativity in the middle of the park.

Competition for places is fierce ahead of the new season with a new man at the helm so motivation shouldn’t be an issue for Sevilla’s players and they ought to have more than enough class to sweep Ujpest aside again. Defensively the Hungarian outfit look pretty weak and 4 of their 5 matches in all competitions this season have seen over 3.5 goals scored, largely down to their inept defending.

A repeat would be no surprise and backing Sevilla & Over 3.5 Goals could be worth considering.