Arguably the most anticipated tie of the Europa League R32 stage! Lazio host specialists in Europa League 5x champions in the past 13 years Sevilla!
To begin with the hosts Lazio, it’s been a relatively decent season. Lazio are 7th in the league but 1 point off the top 4, they’re still in the Cup Semi in Italy and are primed to make a Europa League run after getting out of a pretty tough group.
Lazio are entering this tie after some good results, they won back to back league games and have beaten Inter in the Cup too.
Lazio’s Europa League group stage performances have been inconsistent despite qualifying, they finished 2nd in the group having won 3 and lost 3 games. They had qualification clinched after 4 games so the last two games which they lost didn’t really matter. Lazio’s performances were far better at Home than away in Europe this season.
Lazio’s biggest concern coming into this game definitely has to be the fact that 2 key players are likely out with Milinkovic-Savic definitely being out and Immobile being a doubt. Losing these two players are seriously going to affect Lazio’s chances at winning. Immobile in fact has scored over 30% of teams goals this season.
Another concern of Lazio’s is struggles against big sides. They are yet to defeat any of the top Serie A sides in 90 mins (Inter in the cup was on pens), they’ve lost both games to Frankfurt who won their EL group. This Sevilla game can definitely be considered as a big game and Lazio got to find a way to overcome their big game struggles.
Looking at Sevilla, well they’re the experts of this competition. They won it in 2006, 2007, 2014, 2015, 2016, yes 5 times in 13 years! Sevilla will be looking at another long run in the competition this season again.
Sevilla’s form is far from good right now, they’ve lost 5 of their last 8 games (winless in 3 straight), they most recently came back from 0-2 down against Eibar with 2 late goals but even then they really shouldn’t have put themselves into that position.
Sevilla’s away form is absolutely tragic. Since the start of October they have managed 2 away wins from 14 away games. They’ve lost 4 consecutive away games and most recently blew a 2-0 aggregate lead to Barcelona in a 6-1 loss in their domestic cup which pretty much is a good game to look at if you want to explain Sevilla’s away struggles.
Sevilla have performed pretty well in Europa League group stages, but once again mostly because of their spectacular home form. Sevilla finished top of the group with 4W 2L. They won all 3 home games but lost 2 of 3 away from home. They edged Krasnodar, St Liege and Akhisarspor to win the group. A great comparison for their discrepancies at home to their travels is Sevilla’s GD, they’re 14:1 at Home while 4:5 on the road in this competition.
Wissam Ben Yedder is the man to watch, he’s Sevilla’s top scorer this season with 19 goals. He’s their top scorer in Europa League.
According to bookies, Lazio are still favoured to win the 1st leg match despite missing key players. Lazio are tipped to win at 2.35, Draw is 3.30 and Sevilla win is 3.10 (Odds based on TonyBet).
Team News
Lazio: As mentioned already, two key players are out for Lazio in Milinkovic-Savic and star striker Ciro Immobile is a huge doubt therefore someone else will have to step up and step up big time in the absence of Lazio’s star men.
Sevilla: Sevilla will be without Nolito, Aleix Vidal and Joris Ghanon.
Betting Stats (UEL Based)
Lazio have yet to cover total goal overs at home this season in UEL, 66.7% have been voided however (0-2-1).
Lazio haven’t yet covered a 1st half total goal over at home this season, they have 100% Under ratio in the 1st half goal totals in UEL (0-3).
Lazio average 2.67 bookings per game at Home in UEL this season (8 bookings in 3 games)
Joaquin Correa is Lazio’s top scorer at Home in UEL this season with 2 home European goals.
Lazio have covered 33.3% of their Handicaps at Home in UEL this season (1-2).
Lazio have covered 66.7% of their 1st half Handicaps at home in UEL this season (2-1).
Including qualifiers, Sevilla have covered 66.7% of their total goal overs away from home in the UEL this season (4-2).
Sevilla have only covered 33.3% of their total 1st half goal overs away from home in the UEL however (2-1-3). More goals come in the 2nd half in their games.
Sevilla average 3.67 bookings away from home in UEL this season (11 bookings in 3 games). They’ve seen 2 red cards on their European travels already. Feisty.
Sarabia is Sevilla’s top scorer away from home in UEL this season with 5 away European goals. All 5 did come in qualifiers however.
Sevilla have covered 33.3% of their Handicaps away from home in UEL (2-1-3). However they failed to cover any in the group stages (0-3).
Sevilla have covered 66.7% of their 1st half Handicaps away from home in UEL (4-2).
KICK OFF – 14th February 2019 – 5:55pm UK Time
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