Second-placed Real Madrid welcome fifth-placed Sevilla to the Santiago Bernabeu on Saturday in a round 20 La Liga fixture. Madrid won the reverse fixture thanks to a Benzema header, but Sevilla remain only five points behind the 2020 Spanish Super Cup champions on the La Liga table; and a win for Sevilla will put them just two points behind Los Blancos and Barcelona, at least till Barca play Granada at the Nou Camp. The title race is far from a two-horse race, especially with Atletico Madrid in the mix too.
Los Blancos come into this match in high spirits, after beating Atletico Madrid on penalties, to claim the 2020 Spanish Super Cup trophy. The newly crowned champions are in impervious form. And not only that, they’ve been difficult to score against. In their last 16 matches played in all competitions, they’ve won 10 matches and drawn 6, keeping 10 clean sheets in the progress. Four of those clean sheets are from the last five matches, so it’s fair to say that the team is in equally good defensive form. In the same span of matches, the team scored 35 goals and conceded only 7 goals.
To highlight how difficult it has been to defeat Zinedine Zidane’s men, they’ve only lost one match in the league all season – a 1-0 defeat away at Mallorca. It is the draws they failed to convert to wins that has them level on points with Barcelona, with the three draws at home being particularly painful. Overall, Los Merengues have won eleven of their nineteen matches, drawn seven and lost one. At home, Los Blancos have won six of nine matches, scored twenty goals and only conceded six goals. Despite their good form, Madrid will be wary of Sevilla, especially with the absence of key player, Karim Benzema, who has posted twelve goals and five assists this season – just one goal and one assist behind Lionel Messi.
There are two layers of retribution on offer for Sevilla on Saturday: the team’s 1-0 defeat at the Ramon Sanchez-Pizjuan by Los Blancos, as well as Julen Lopetegui looking to exact revenge for being sacked from his position as the Real Madrid manager. All these add an extra layer of drama to what already promises to be a cracking match. Sevilla will be up for the match, seeking to at least keep their place in the Champions League spot as they are chased by Valencia and Real Sociedad. Sevilla have played two matches in 2020, registering one win (a 5-0 win over Escobedo in the Copa Del Rey) and a 1-1 draw against Athletic Bilbao at home.
Sevilla currently have the best away record in the division this season, with 20 points registered from their 10 away matches. The 20 points include six wins, two draws and two losses. This is despite just scoring 13 goals in those matches and conceding 10 goals. The low-scoring stats point to a team ready to grind out low-scoring leads into wins. The Andalusian-based club have only been beaten once in their last eleven matches. However, the team’s form has somewhat floundered in the last four games, with only one win.
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As Madrid have shown in recent matches, they are a well-drilled football team; you would need to excel before you are able to score against them. Goals have also been dry in the Los Blanco’s last five La Liga matches, with only one game registering more than 2.5 goals and featuring two goalless draws against Barcelona and Atletico Bilbao. Sevilla does not fare well in this regard either. Only one of Sevilla’s last five La Liga matches have ended with more than 2.5 goals. What this points out is that this is likely to be a low-scoring affair and would perhaps be the best value on offer. In terms of head to head, the more recent games between the two clubs almost always produce a winner. There have been only two draws in the last ten matches between the two clubs. Madrid have the better of the last 15 matches, winning 9 and drawing two. For more Real Madrid vs Sevilla betting tips and prediction, click here. Real Madrid – Sevilla is part of the Super9ja contest. Create your Bet9ja account and enter the free-to-enter-contest. You can find information about the bookmaker Bet9ja on our website.
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