Real Madrid vs Sevilla 19/01/19

19 January 2019

After suffering a 1-0 loss to Leganes in midweek’s Copa del Rey return leg, Real Madrid will host Sevilla to the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu searching for their first La Liga home triumph in 2019.

Although Real Madrid eventually advanced to the next stage of Copa del Rey, they’ve once again failed to live up to expectations. Los Blancos’ indifferent form in 2019 (W2, D1, L2) has seen Santiago Solari’s men failing to hit the back of the net twice in their five competitive outings while struggling to keep a clean sheet four times in the process. But, the fact that Real Madrid outplayed Sevilla in their last 11 H2H meetings at Santiago Bernabeu seems promising, as Solari can’t afford another failure if he looks to close the gap on Barcelona (10 points). If the reigning European champions win this, it would probably be to nil considering all of their previous four LL home victories saw them keeping a clean sheet. Still, Los Merengues have lost two of their last five LL home clashes, conceding two goals in both defeats.

On the other hand, the Andalusians are winless in their last six LL road clashes (D4, L2), with their previous five away games produced under 2.5 goals. Sevilla’s problems in the final third have seen the score over 1.5 goals per match just three times in their last ten La Liga outings. What’s more, the visitors have scored one goal or less on each of their previous five road trips. Although Los Nervionenses’ backline stood firm for the majority of the season, they’ve slowed down a bit recently, failing to keep a clean sheet in the last five competitive games. Only five teams (including Real Madrid) have shipped more goals away from home than Los Hispalenses (14) this campaign, with Pablo Machin’s men keeping a clean sheet in just one of their ten LL road meetings.

Provisional line-up – Real Madrid:

Gk: Keylor Navas Defense: Marcelo – Varane – Sergio Ramos – Carvajal Midfield: Casemiro – Modric – Ceballos Attack: Lucas Vasquez – Vinicius Junior – Benzema

Provisional line-up – Sevilla:

Gk: Vaclik Defense: Escudero – Kjaer – Gnagnon – Sergi Gomez – Jesus Navas Midfield: Banega –Roque Mesa – Pablo Sarabia Attack: Andre Silva – Ben Yedder