Villarreal – Sevilla

Sevilla can be transformed in an important encounter against Villarreal

In one of the central matches of the sixth leg of La Liga, Villarreal will take on Sevilla at home. This is a game between the main rivals for a place in the Champions League. Both teams will be in fourth place at the end of the season. That said, Sevilla are now far from their declared goals. Julen Lopetegui's side have had a dismal start to the season. The bleeding team notched their first win until a week ago when they beat Espanyol away. For the rest, there was total hopelessness. Sevilla have been thrashed in matches against top clubs Barcelona and Manchester City, but that's not the worst of it. The Andalusians cannot beat opponents of a significantly lower level. Sevilla did not beat Copenhagen in midweek. Didn't even have an all-out superiority. The level of performers in the team remains high, but there is no balance. Sevilla suffers from a lack of a pronounced scorer. There is also nowhere near as much stability in defence. Unfortunately, centre-back Marcao is still injured. He was planned to be used as the main performer. In terms of advanced statistics, Sevilla have an awful record for a fourth-place contender. The club are third from bottom in the number of chances taken. Only Elche and Cadiz are worse defensively. Their attacking performance is still of a medium level. There is a certain lack of opportunities, which can easily be explained by the absence of a quality forward, capable of converting goal situations. Villarreal, on the other hand, have had a very successful start. For a long time, the team were the only team in Europe's top leagues without conceding a goal. At the start of La Liga, their "dry" streak was four games. There were no losses in Vilarreal's squad over the summer, on the contrary, they managed to make some point-blank additions. Unai Emery now has a large squad of players available to play on two fronts. The team also have no major problems in the Conference League. Villarreal have been beating low-standard opponents with their reserves. In the league, however, their perfect streak was interrupted in the away game against Betis. A 0-1 defeat away to a difficult opponent was recorded. The bookmakers are putting up very unusual quotes for the match between the two rivals in the upcoming match. Sevilla are priced above 5.00. This is over the line. Lopetegui's team does show some signs of progress though. The match against Villarreal will have a special attitude. From a tournament point of view, this is one of the most important games of the year. The opponents usually have equal games between them. The home side have the advantage in the last few years, but not that much.