Sevilla will be bidding to make it back-to-back wins in La Liga

Post Views: 68

Sevilla will be bidding to make it back-to-back wins in La Liga when they welcome an in-form Celta Vigo to Estadio Ramon on Friday night. The home side will enter the contest off the back of a 2-0 victory over Cadiz, while Celta extended their unbeaten run in the league to six matches with a 2-2 draw against Almeria last time out.

Sevilla have afforded themselves some crucial breathing space courtesy of a 2-0 win away to fellow relegation contender Cádiz that extended their gap from La Liga’s (LL) danger zone to four points. If they can get even further away and move closer to upcoming opponent Celta Vigo into a mid-table position, it’ll ensure they can throw everything they’ve got at Manchester United in this month’s UEFA Europa League quarter-final without putting their LL survival at stake.

It was the fifth time during his storied managerial career that José Luis Mendilibar won his first top-flight league game at a new club, having also done so at Eibar, Osasuna, Valladolid and Athletic Bilbao over a period of nearly 20 years. Not one to get ahead of himself after overseeing Eibar and Alavés’ relegations in 2021 and 2022, Mendilibar vowed a “game by game” approach and knows of the challenges of balancing multiple competitions. “Every win costs,” he told the media after defeating Cádiz.

Celta have not defeated a Mendilibar-led side in five attempts (D3, L2), but must fancy their chances of preventing a sixth after constructing their longest undefeated streak (W3, D3) of this LL season. On the flipside, recently failing to beat bottom-three Almería (2-2) at home was a missed opportunity to move alongside top-eight clubs Athletic and Vallecano on points, and in the process make a late-season charge for European football.

It has nonetheless been a very successful turnaround from 16th place at the start of Carlos Carvalhal’s tenure in November, with Celta operating consistently both at home (W3, D3, L2) and away (W3, D3, L1) in league football under his stewardship. They should therefore be confident of taking a point home from Seville just as they did last season (2-2), especially after conceding just one half-time lead from their last ten LL games.

Date: 07/04/2023
Time: 22:00
Venue: Estadio Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán (Sevilla)
Pick for this match:
“1” – @ 2.11 ( Betway )