La Liga: Sevilla vs. Real Madrid Preview, Odds, Prediction

Tonight’s game at Ramon Sanches Pizjuan could end the title race in the Spanish La Liga if Real Madrid defeats Sevilla. Los Blancos have a 12-point advantage over Sevilla and Barcelona (who does have a game in hand at the moment). Rojoblancos lost too many points in recent times, and instead of being closer to the top for at least six or seven steps, they could end up outside the top four places because both Atletico Madrid and Betis are just three points behind.

Preview

Sevilla (+180) lost its pace in the worst possible moment, winning just one of the last five games. That was the most recent at home against Granada, whom they beat 4-1. Prior to that clash, Sevilla had two draws and two defeats, and when looking only at the La Liga games, they hadn’t triumphed in four consecutive, getting three out of possible 12 points.

In the meantime, Rojoblancos suffered an elimination from the Europa League, losing to West Ham after extra times, 2-1 on aggregate. Whether it is a short rotation or something else, but the team from Andalusia really looked deflated in all these games.

The positive thing is that they didn’t lose in the past 13 games at home, posting nine wins and four draws. On eight occasions they would score two or more goals, and have six clean sheets.

Real Madrid (+140) squeezed into the semis of the UEFA Champions League, losing to Chelsea 2-3 at Santiago Bernabeu after extra times. Though they had a 1-3 lead from the first leg, which was the reason why they came out as winners of this matchup.

Los Blancos are in very good shape, winning eight and losing two games in the past 10 events across all the competitions. A vast majority of those events saw three or more goals, to be precise, eight of them.

When we focus only on Real’s away clashes, we see that they won the last four, netting two or more goals in three latest. Those same events were with over 2.5 goals.

Latest News

Reges and Suso both have ankle issues, while Rekik suffered a muscle injury.

Meanwhile, Ancelotti will have certain problems before this event. Casemiro is suspended, and that is a major blow for the Los Blancos. Hazard, Marcelo, Ceballos, Mendy and Vallejo are all injured and out.

Head to Head Games

Real won the first meeting of the year at Bernabeu, 2-1. Rafa Mir shocked the hosts with a goal in the 12th minute, but Benzema leveled until the halftime. Three minutes before the end of the game, Vinicius flipped the result, leaving all three points in Madrid.

Prediction

In our opinion, this should be a very tough and close match, without too many chances on both ends. Ancelotti will try to lower the tempo of the game, and after seeing what happened against Chelsea, be even more conservative. That is why our pick here is under 2.5 goals, with the odds on that -115 at the moment. The latest two head-to-head clashes at Pizjuan saw only one goal.

Pick: Under 2.5 goals -115