Sevilla hold a decent advantage as they travel to Fenerbahce for the second leg of their Europa League last 16 tie. While Turkey is often a difficult place to play, the Spaniards will be banking on their vast experience in this competition and should do enough to progress on Thursday.
Fenerbahce will be disappointed to have come away empty-handed from the first leg as they suffered a 2-0 defeat. They held their own for much of the contest and had several chances to score but were wasteful in front of goal.
The Super Lig side’s domestic campaign has been greatly disrupted due to the devastating earthquakes in the country in February. Jorge Jesus’s men have only played twice since then and were not in action last weekend.
Despite the disruption to their campaign, Fenerbahce have been in good form and the result at Sevilla was their first defeat in nine matches across all competitions. They have also maintained a solid home record, losing just once in the last eight matches at the Sukru Saracoglu Stadium.
Sevilla showed their experience in the first leg as they did well enough to claim a decent advantage. Having been held to a stalemate at the break, they came to life in the second half with goals from Joan Jordan and Erik Lamela getting them the win.
While their domestic form has been in tatters, Sevilla have managed to show their capabilities on the European stage as they are one positive result away from a quarter-final berth. Jorge Sampaoli’s men will head into Thursday’s clash off the back of a rare La Liga win as they earned a 2-1 victory over Almeria.
Travelling has been a big problem for Sevilla, who are without a win in their last five away matches across all competitions. However, having earned draws at Copenhagen and Borussia Dortmund during the group stage of the Champions League, they will be confident of doing enough to qualify on Thursday.
How the bookies view it
Fenerbahce have the upper hand among the bookies and are priced at 13/10 by Unibet to claim the win. A victory for Sevilla is valued at 21/19 by Paddy Power while bet365 is offering odds of 5/2 for a draw.
Head to head
Sevilla have three wins while Fenerbahce have only been victorious once in four previous meetings. Prior to last week’s first leg, the last meeting between both teams was a friendly in 2014 which ended 2-0 in favour of the Spaniards.
Players to watch
With Fenerbahce expected to go all out looking for a way back into the contest, Enner Valencia could be the one to watch on Thursday. The striker has 11 goals in his last 10 matches across all competitions and is priced at 8/5 with Unibet to maintain his scoring run on Thursday.
Erik Lamela has scored off the bench in the last two matches for Sevilla and could be handed a start on Thursday. The attacker could be worth keeping an eye on and is priced at 5/1 by William Hill to score anytime.
Anything else catch the eye?
Both teams have shown attacking quality lately and could be tipped to score at 3/4 with Paddy Power. Fenerbahce have seen over 3.5 goals in their last three home matches and could be set for a repeat at 13/5 with Paddy Power while over 2.5 goals is valued 19/20 by SBK.
Having been level at the break in the first meeting, Thursday’s clash is set to follow a similar pattern at 6/5 with Unibet.
This UEFA Europa League match between Fenerbahce and Sevilla will be played on Mar 16, 2023 and kick off at 17:45. Check below for our tipsters best Fenerbahce vs Sevilla prediction. You may also visit our dedicated betting previews section for the most up to date previews.
