Espanyol host Sevilla at the RCDE stadium in match week 20 of the 2016/17 La Liga season as both teams look to pick up all 3 points so they can climb up the table. Sevilla are one of Europe’s hottest teams right now and there’s only a point that separates themselves and Real Madrid in 1st place. Espanyol are having a decent season and they find themselves in 9^th after a solid first half of the season.

STATS

• Espanyol are showing the form of a team that you would expect to see around mid-table, in their last 6 games, they’ve drawn 2, lost 2 and won 2, a solid record with their losses coming against 2 of the big teams: Valencia and Barcelona. A convincing 3-1 win in their last league game against struggling Granada at home will give them plenty of confidence playing in front of their home crowd.
• Sevilla are enjoying a really good run of form of late. With 7 wins in their last 8 games as well as 23 goals in that time, which is nearly an average of 3 goals in every game. A disappointing loss against 19^th placed Granada may prove costly in the title race. Although, they ended Real Madrid’s 40-game unbeaten run with a 2-1 win against Zidane’s men two weeks ago.
• Espanyol’s top scorer in the league so far this season is Gerard Moreno with 7 goals, which means he’s scoring one in just over every 2 games, a decent record for a player of his standard. The goals have been well split around the whole team which will make it hard for the Sevilla defence to specifically focus on.
• Wissam Ben Yedder has been Sevilla’s talisman this season with 8 goals and 2 assists so far this season. Due to his late start for Sevilla, it means he is scoring a goal every 116 minutes in the league. The signing of Stevan Jovetic on loan from Inter Milan provides another attacking threat and he scored on his debut to end Real Madrid’s unbeaten run.

HEAD TO HEAD

Espanyol have only beaten Sevilla once in their last 10 meetings, which they’ll be hoping to add to. The last game between the two sides ended with 10 goals, a 6-4 win for Sevilla at the Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán Stadium! 7 of these 10 meetings have seen more than 2.5 goals.

Head to head matches: Espanyol Barcelona - Sevilla FC

20.08.2016

LaLi

Sevilla FC

Espanyol Barcelona

6:4

ESPANYOL NEWS

After a mixed run of form in the last few months in La Liga, Espanyol won’t look to make loads of changes ahead of this fixture but with 3 injuries and a player away on international duty, they will be forced into a few tweaks. Victor Sanchez and Javi Lopez both miss out through different muscular problems while Leo Baptistao remains out with a heel injury he picked up in December. Papakouli Diop is on African Cup of Nations duty with Senegal.

Latest matches: Espanyol Barcelona

21.01.2017	LaLi	Espanyol Barcelona	Granada CF	3:1	W
15.01.2017	LaLi	Valencia CF	Espanyol Barcelona	2:1	L
06.01.2017	LaLi	Espanyol Barcelona	Deportivo La Coruna	1:1	D
22.12.2016	Copa	Espanyol Barcelona	Alcorcon AD	4:5	L
18.12.2016	LaLi	FC Barcelona	Espanyol Barcelona	4:1	L

SEVILLA NEWS

Sevilla manager, Jorge Sampaoli, won’t want to shuffle his pack too much for their trip to Espanyol due to some really good recent form. With several injuries and Steven N’Zonzi out with a suspension, Sampaoli will be forced into making some changes. Michael Krohn-Delhi, Samir Nasri and Vitolo will cause a tactical headache as to which wingers will be played which leaves Sevilla really short. Tremoulinas and Carrico are also both out through injury.

Latest matches: Sevilla FC

22.01.2017	LaLi	CA Osasuna	Sevilla FC	3:4	W
15.01.2017	LaLi	Sevilla FC	Real Madrid	2:1	W
12.01.2017	Copa	Sevilla FC	Real Madrid	3:3	D
07.01.2017	LaLi	Real Sociedad	Sevilla FC	0:4	W
04.01.2017	Copa	Real Madrid	Sevilla FC	3:0	L

SUMMARY

Sevilla are huge favourites going into this one but with Espanyol’s home crowd behind them, they might be able to cause a massive upset. Due to the history of this fixture and how both teams have played recently, there will almost definitely be a lot of goals for both sides. I certainly can’t see past a Sevilla win.