Sevilla at Lazio: UEL Round of 32 (1st leg)

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European football is back as we start the road to Sevilla’s 6th Europa League title this Thursday vs Lazio.

After what we could call the lowest point of the season so far, many questions can be posed on how Sevilla will bounce back. The month of January has seen the highs of a 5-0 win & the lows of a 6-1 defeat. And that was in the same week!

Whistles were heard during & at the end of the last home match vs Eibar, mostly directed at Pablo Machín. It felt more like a callback to when we suffered defeat to Getafe at home. Although we salvaged a point from this match, in dramatic fashion at that, the sense of disappointment was obvious.

TEAM NEWS

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How should Machín reshuffle his preferred XI? If a change must be made, I’m sure all would agree that AMADOU should be one of the first names mentioned for the midfield. As we face a side well versed in the 3-5-2, we’re gonna need some discipline in front of our defence.

Speaking of our opponents, they got some familiar faces lining up for them. One of our own, and who has improved his play wonderfully since leaving us, Luis Alberto will be the one looked upon to make the difference. As Lazio are without both Milinkovic-Savic & Immobile (another ex), Tucu Correa may be on a revenge mission. He’s had a mixed spell in his 2 years with us, but after adopting a central role at Lazio, he’s been bagging important goals for them and looking like the player he’s projected to be.

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As away matches go for Sevilla, there shouldn’t be much hope. But in cup competitions, we have registered wins at San Mamés & at the Wanda in the last 2 seasons. There’s always something in the air when Sevilla plays on a Thursday. So no matter the form, this may be a night where Sevilla regain their footing.

Lucha por lo que amas.

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They don’t appear to be very confident.

http://forum.lazioland.com//index.php/topic,3357.0.html

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According to Machin. Mercado, Carriço, Promes and Escudero all have fitness doubts for tomorrow.

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Makes sense. Promes has played a lot lately, and the other 3 are all injury prone. I’m still not convinced that Escudero has fully recovered. And I’m not sure if Arana suffered a concussion after that bloody nose at Celta, but anybody else hoping that knocked some sense into him? :face_with_hand_over_mouth:

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Hhahaha, not sure if that does the job.

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I really don’t know what our best formation is anymore. The fact that we played much much better (according to folks here as I couldn’t watch the match) without Banega in the last 10 mins or so tells a lot.

I also think that Banega does not offer much currently, and not sure if he’s really suited for Machin’s system. We need dynamic midfielders that run a lot and are productive, Banega and Mudo are simply not cutting it at the moment.

Would like to see what Rog has to offer, otherwise, we need some serious reinforcements in the summer window, maybe a big change depending on how the season fares, especially if we don’t make the top 4 with Machin, I’d want him out too.

It’s difficult to think of any positive element so far this season, but if we’d dig too deep to bring it out on surface, I think it would only be the fact that we are not getting humiliated (result-wise) from teams other than Barca. Last season we conceded 5 goals in a match 6 times, and 4 goals in a match 2 times. Some of the results against us were (even from teams like Eibar): 5-0 (2 times), 5-1 (2 times), 5-3, 5-2, 4-0 (2 times), statistics of a pathetic and mediocre team. But then of course, we reached the quarters of CL and CDR final but those achievements couldn’t be celebrated with dignity because of the sour taste that the disastrous results during the season left to us Sevillistas.

So yeah, we’re not conceding 4 and 5 goals on a regular basis, however, we’ve conceded 4 and 6 goals in a match against Barca which also show signs of a non-serious team. One could argue that even RM lost to Barca with similar results, but then RM always pushes for the title and wins CL’s, while we don’t, that’s the difference. Terrible results can happen, but they shouldn’t happen too often or it becomes a bad habit that will make a team lose its glory worldwide.

24th of February will see us face Barca again in RSP and I can’t help but expect that we concede at least 3-4 goals with another humiliation similar to the last match (6-1) in Camp Nou.

I hope that today we’ll at least fight and try our best, the result is not very important as our main battle this season is the 4th place, which we haven’t gotten out of only because the teams that are following us are inconsistent as well.

Tonight I would field this lineup:

Vaclik

Mercado Carrico Sergi Gomez

Navas Amadou Rog Mesa Escudero

              WBY  Silva

That is if Mercado is fit to play, otherwise we might have to experiment at back 3. Also Sarabia could be in there for Amadou but I’d like a more stable midfield.

Again, not totally sure what our best formation is at this point as every player has disappointed at a given time and none deserves to be an undisputed starter all the time 100%.

Hoping for a positive result tonight.

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:man_facepalming:

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Same old same old… hope it sparks tonight!

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Worthy to be a final. I hope this tie delivers.

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Banega & Vázquez playing with yellow cards. I doubt Éver avoids the book.

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10 minutes in and it looks too easy to be true.

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Our counters have been good so far. WBY with the tap-in again? 1-0 SEVILLA.

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We look like we could score 10, but don’t want to, very strange game, 0-1.

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Betis two goals down after 10 minutes in Rennes hehe :grinning:. Meanwhile, Lazio almost score :roll_eyes:

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Banega free kick worse I’ve seen in years and I watch a lot of junior league football. Sevilla walking through the Lazio defence and losing the ball at 8 yards out. This is a bad sign.

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Banega been on a mission to take down Correa from minute 1. But that means no Éver for a whole week? :grin:

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That will be the signpost that we can play without Banega.

Who needs to come on in the second half, I reckon we need Promes on the left. Rest Escudero who obviously is not at his best…
Navas needs to refrain from using his left foot for anything other than running.

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Bati Barisov in the lead against Arsenal ??? Betis losing 3-1 very nice.

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Lovely pressing from the attacking players in the 1st half. The finishing needs some major improvement.

Tucu had some dangerous runs in the box. Nearly got himself a goal. Kjær made some crucial interventions.

Not too bad so far. We should at least double our lead before we leave here tonight.

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This game might explode, in whose favour I don’t know. We’ve had dozens of counter attacks that have produced nothing, a top team only needs one. I don’t know what we’re playing at here, really.

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