THE next round of La Liga action begins on Friday night with a clash from the bottom half of the table. Espanyol will kick off the fixture two places and two points behind opponents Sevilla, with the latter in better form. Here we preview Espanyol vs Sevilla on Friday, October 25th at the RCDE Stadium.
How the bookies view it: Tight clash expected in Catalonia
Due to having slightly better form than their opponents recently, Sevilla are the narrow match favourites at a quote of 7/5 with 888Sport. That leaves Espanyol, who have suffered four losses in their last five, as the 2/1 underdogs in the match winner market, with the draw, which isn’t out of the question, at 9/4.
Recent head-to-head: Can Sevilla extend unbeaten streak?
Sevilla are unbeaten in their last ten league encounters with Espanyol. The last time they met in the 2022/23 season, Sevilla won both matches against them by a 3-2 scoreline. Sevilla have scored at least two goals in five of their last six against the Parakeets.
Players to watch: Lukebakio to make a crucial contribution?
For Los Rojiblancos, goals have been a little hard to come by this season. Sevilla’s top scorer in the league is Dodi Lukebakio from midfield, with a tally of three. No other player in the squad has managed more than one goal. He takes their spot kicks too, so is worth a look in the anytime goalscorer market.
Espanyol’s top league scorer this season also has three to his name, and that is Javi Puado, from eight appearances. All three of his goals however, came in a hattrick performance against Alaves back in mid-September.
Predicted Lineups
Sevilla will get Tanguy Nianzou back from suspension following his red card against Real Betis on October 7th. He will likely slide back into the starting line up to shore up the defence, which conceded five against Barcelona in their last match. Espanyol are expected to be close to full strength.
Espanyol: Garcia, Gomez, Kumbulla, Olivan, El Hilali, Lozano, Gragera, Carreras, Kral, Romero, Veliz
Sevilla: Yland, Pedrosa, Bade, Nianzou, Carmona, Gudelj, Lukebakio, Fernandez, Agoume, Ejuke, Romero
Anything else catches the eye?
There’s not been a great deal of positive form produced by either team this season and the margins don’t look like being big in this upcoming clash. Espanyol have lost four of their last six in the league (W2) but of their three home wins, two were recorded against teams currently in the top half of the table. Their two home defeats came only by a margin of one goal against Villarreal and Real Sociedad.
Sevilla have gone W3 D2 L1 in their last six matches, but looking closer, their away form has not been great. They are winless away from the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan this season in La Liga. Overall in this campaign, only in two of their ten completed matches have Sevilla managed to score more than one goal in a game.
At present, this doesn’t look as if it will go anywhere near the goal-fests from the 2022/23 league meetings at all. Swinging under 2.5 goals may be the way to go for this one, and given Espanyol's half-decent home form, they may be well worth an underdog punt.
This La Liga match between Espanyol and Sevilla will be played on Oct 25, 2024 and kick off at 20:00. Check below for our tipsters best Espanyol vs Sevilla prediction. You may also visit our dedicated betting previews section for the most up to date previews.
