M28: Sevilla v Betis [2019-20]

Sevilla FC Sevilla FC Chat
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La Liga is Back Baby!

After a three-month layoff from the 2019-2020 La Liga season, Spaniards and those watching all over the world will get a treat by watching one of the greatest derbies in football. The two teams from Sevilla always come prepared for the derby and while this will be unique without the fans, the same passion should show.

Sevilla’s season finds them in the driver’s seat for a Champions League football finish as they sit in third position; however, Real Sociedad, Getafe, and Atlético Madrid are within 2 points of third place. With matches against Barcelona, Athletic Bilbao, Real Sociedad and Valencia left Sevilla can ill afford to drop points in this match with their city rivals.

Heading into the match, there are lots of questions and very few answers. With a long three-month delay, only 8 full team training sessions, and very little 11v11 sessions, what will the quality of the football be? Will the players be up for the challenge and how can Julen Lopetegui, the Sevilla manager, manage the health of his aging team?

Sevilla’s fullbacks have contributed to one third of the team’s assists and with only one right back on the roster, the thirty-four-year-old, Jesús Navas, will have to be managed carefully. Could the likes of Javier Pérez or Álex Robles make their first team debut during these last 11 matches?

Continuing on the theme of health, Sevilla finds themselves with the possibility of being without two of their star players, as both Suso (1 goal, 1 assist in 6 games) and Lucas Ocampos (10 goals, 2 assists) have picked up injuries in training. Both will be game time decisions.

Another interesting item to keep an eye on is how will the players whose contracts technically expire at the end of June perform. Both Éver Banega (2 goals, 6 assists) and Nolito (3 goals, 1 assists) have expiring contracts and will be counted on to perform well in the last 11 fixtures.

One thing is for certain, football is back! While it will seem a bit different without the fans singing and cheering, the passion that the city of Sevilla has for this game remains the same.

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Lope called up the whole squad for tonight’s match. All 22 players + 6 youth team players. Gudelj will miss out due to suspension.

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Also, since 5 substitutes are allowed now, the final squad can include a total of 23 players. Hence, 4 players will be cut from the list above.

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Good to see us at full strength. Not sure what to expect tonight. Will be very strange with no fans and resuming league in June during these unprecedented circumstances. I am confident we can chalk up a big win though. It’s massive game for the teams confidence and hopes for top 4 or 3. Vamos Sevilla!

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Well, weather is ok here, not that hot and a bit breezy too so shouldn’t be too bad for the players tonight. We just got to get the right mentality and I think we can use a win as a platform for the rest of the season.

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The first leg will be aired on BeIn Sports N at 1PM today

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STARTING XI !

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Ocampos !! :raised_hands:

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Nice! Also got Munir back in the lineup! If ya’ll remember, De Jong, Nolito and Ocampos tore these guys up in the first match. Hopefully Munir can slot in for Nolito nicely.

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Probably one of the strongest line ups we can have. A win tonight would be a massive boost. Go Sevilla!

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Love Lopo’s reaction at the end of the first match. Hope we see the same today. Vamos!!!

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Haha same. I was just watching 30 min recap on BeIN.

Hopefully another big goal from De Jong today.

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He made a statement about being cautious about making too many subs just because you have them. So maybe not. I bet we see En Nesyri, Banega and Gomez to lock it down.

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I seen positive reports about Rony Lopes’ fitness, who does look slimmer in some photos. Wouldn’t mind his & En-Nesyri’s pace off the bench.

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Come join

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Struggled to find our footing in the 1st half, but we were still the superior team. Our defence looked like how we started the season. Fernando was immense once again.

Anybody notice Navas playing a bit more withdrawn? I’m sure he’s looking to play every game so he’s being more conservative.

3 points in the bag! Onto Levante. :call_me_hand:

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Really enjoyed that tonight guys. Great to get to know everyone and it was a lot of fun :slight_smile: Even better that we won convincingly too.

We dominated the match from start to finish. Like we discussed I can’t remember :poop: having a clear chance. Ocampos was once again the star man. Thought everyone performed well though in difficult circumstances after a long break, worry of being rusty and of course no fans. I loved the passion shown by players when we scored. They celebrated like the fans were there and they did the fans and club proud tonight.

We have cemented our position in 3rd. Did the double over :poop: which is sweet. We can relax now and see how our rivals get on. Great to have footy and la liga back! Vamos Sevilla!!

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Ocampos man of the match for me closely followed by Munir and Kounde. The weak link was Jordan all he did was give the ball away. :poop: were never in the game and looked very ring rusty, I expected much more of a threat from them.
Great to start to the mini season with a win especially against our neighbours, it means that we hold on to 3rd place no matter what happens in the other games this weekend.

A question for those of you outside Spain who watched the game on tv. Did you get the crowd noise and the stands full of fans special effects, or was it empty seats and no noise?
The reason I ask is that I had the choice of 2 channels to watch the game via my satellite system namely La liga tv who had the empty seats and no noise and La Liga tv Bar that I watched which is the subscription channel for bar owners who had the far better effects. Just wondering which version went out worldwide.

On another note I loved the sense of humour of the guy in charge of the pa system.
After the game when Barta was being interviewed by the tv presenter on the pitch, all you could hear was it’s a heartache by Bonnie Tyler blasting out of the stadium speakers as the Sevilla players celebrated in front of the empty nth goal as if all the Biris were there… :joy: :joy: :smile:

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Yep they had their teething problems with the superimposed fans, but hopefully it will get sorted. Still far better than the bits of the German league i have seen.

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Hey there good to see the activity here as always. Watched the game in a bar last night, but I imagined it was good fun on here too. For me it was a classic result game like we had so many. Not that many clear cut chances except for some opportunistic strikes/headers. Compared to betis we were good and in control.and I haven´t been as worried as other days, they felt really worse to me then anything else.

The goals again, seems like we haven´t lost our good relationship with the VAR. Giving us that necesary push in our backs, and another set piece to make it 2-0. Don´t wanna be too negative since this game actually is just about winning, and we did it, we did it well.

Also Fernando, thanks for being on our team. Such a player still.

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Was a bit under the weather, slept right after the match was finished. Great job that we got the 3 points. Definitely felt weird without the fans, just like Bundesliga matches before, but those fan effects made it a bit better.

I am almost totally disconnected from this season and it will take some time before focus returns. If we keep a top 4 spot, that would be more than enough.

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