Julen Lopetegui's high-flying Sevilla side travel to Valencia this week for their La Liga clash with Levante at the Ciutat de Valencia.
With five wins in their last six league games, Sevilla are the most in-form side in the division and could leapfrog Real Madrid and Barcelona into second place with a win on Wednesday evening.
Match preview
© Reuters
Following a medley of both good and bad performances, hosts Levante are starting to look like La Liga's most unpredictable outfit.
In the last few weeks alone they have beaten Valencia and Eibar and also lost to the likes of Huesca, Real Betis and, most recently, Villarreal.
Against Villarreal last time out, Paco Lopez's men were put to the sword in a humiliating 5-1 defeat, with Mickael Malsa the only scorer for Los Granotes.
If Levante are to take anything away from this tie, a lot may rest on the shoulders of striker Roger Marti, who has 11 goals so far this season.
© Reuters
After overcoming a blip in form in late February, Lopetegui's Sevilla now look to be as cunning and imperious as ever and are quickly gaining ground on the heavyweights of the division.
Las Palanganas have taken some fairly notable scalps in recent weeks too, with league leaders Atletico Madrid, eternal rivals Real Betis and Imanol Alguacil's Real Sociedad all coming away second best from recent league encounters.
Currently fourth in the standings, just six points off Atleti in first place, it is not unthinkable that Sevilla could become late challengers for the league title.
Unlike earlier on in the campaign, the team's reliance on Youssef En-Nesyri has eased somewhat in recent weeks and Sevilla are now looking really dangerous in other compartments too.
- L
- W
- L
- L
- W
- L
- W
- W
- D
- W
- W
- W
Team News
© Reuters
Lopez could tinker with his side following the team's drubbing against Villarreal, but it is unclear how the starting 11 could be improved, with the likes of Jose Luis Morales, Roger and Jorge de Frutos all playing in that game.
Two players that could be brought in to the fray are Dani Gomez and Sergio Leon.
Absentees for Levante include Nemanja Radoja, Jorge Miramon and Nikola Vukcevic, who are all injured for this tie.
Sevilla come into this tie with an entirely fit squad and no absentees, meaning Lopetegui may have a different kind of selection headache on Wednesday.
It is unlikely that the manager will tinker too much with a winning team, but Ivan Rakitic, Luuk de Jong and Nemanja Gudelj could all feature at some point during the 90 minutes.
Levante possible starting lineup:
Fernandez; Coke, Postigo, Duarte, Clerc; De Frutos, Bardhi, Malsa, Morales; Roger, Gomez
Sevilla possible starting lineup:
Bono; Navas, Kounde, Carlos, Acuna; Jordan, Fernando, Gomez; Suso, En-Nesyri, Ocampos
We say: Levante 1-3 Sevilla
Sevilla are really the big dogs in the league right now and, with the firepower Lopetegui's men have at their disposal, it does not look like Levante will be able to find a way to best them. We are going with a 3-1 scoreline.
Top tip
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Sevilla win with a probability of 61.21%. A draw had a probability of 22.2% and a win for Levante had a probability of 16.57%.
The most likely scoreline for a Sevilla win was 0-1 with a probability of 12.54%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 0-2 (11.6%) and 1-2 (9.76%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (10.55%), while for a Levante win it was 1-0 (5.7%). The actual scoreline of 0-1 was predicted with a 12.5% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted a 0-1 win for Sevilla in this match.
