UEFA Super Cup :Real Madrid- Sevilla

 

Sevilla are now Super Cup regulars and are appearing in this European football season "opener" for the 5th time in the last 11 seasons. The previous four have produced 17 goals, including a 4-4 draw with Barcelona in 90 minutes last year, Sevilla have scored eight of those goals and are certainly not afraid to take the game the Champions League winner. La Liga games between Real and Los Rojiblancos offer even more promise of goals, with the last ten h2h meetings producing 47 goals with five going "over" the 4.5 goal line. The two most recent (last season) saw four goals in the capital and five in Seville and draws are incredibly rare, none in the last 20, 15 wins for Real, 5 for Sevilla.
 

There is no Cristiano Ronaldo , Gareth Bale, Pepe or Toni Kroos in the Real squad (see below) , but Real have wins and goals in their absence in pre season with victories over Bayern Munich and Chelsea and three goals inside the opening 38 minutes in the latter and there are plenty of players looking to impress and showcase their talents in the absence of the two big offensive stars. Sevilla are much changed since winning the Europa League , head coach Unai Emery has moved on to PSG and been replaced by Copa America winner Jorge Sampaoli (pictured), top scorer Kévin Gameiro has joined Atletico Madrid , Éver Banega has moved to Inter and Grzegorz Krychowiak has joined Emery in Paris. That is a lot of talent to lose, but Sevilla have been here before and are usually in a rebuilding process of some sort. They have spent some 60€m on new players and got a couple more on loan from Atletico as part of the Gameiro deal, one of whom, Luciano Vietto looked very lively in a friendly with Granada last week, that was Sevilla's sixth win in six warm up games and they looked good, really pressing hard and from the front, looking well ahead in terms of preparation and they played their first friendly, eleven days before Real. Sampaoli says his team needs time and that is true of course, but they look set to do themselves justice and give Real a very close game, the Argentine coach spoke about wanting to win this game, but about about it having to be in "the right way" and not at any cost and regardless of who is on the pitch, it is easy to see this game getting very stretched at times and the new head coach added: 'I want my team to focus more on the goal in front of them than the one behind them "

When Sevilla were pressing hard from the front against Granada they did get caught out once or twice and they will be vulnerable on the break. So it is easy to see goals, but Real are weakened today, their 20 man squad contains three keepers and four of the goals in warm up came from full backs, several of the 17 outfield players are said to be well short of up to 90 minutes currently and whilst we seem sure to see goals, I favour Sevilla with a new coach to impress and he the media, I feel they are a week or so ahead of Real and that the best value is with the "underdog".

 

1.5 units Sevilla +0.25 ball 2.33 asian line /Sportmarket.
 

 

Real Madrid:  Casilla, Yáñez , Luca, Carvajal, Ramos, Varane, Nacho, Danilo, Marcelo,  James, Casemiro, Kovacic, Modric, Isco, Asensio , M. Llorente, Benzema, Lucas Vázquez, Morata, Mariano.

 

 

Good Luck.