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Liverpool – Sevilla. Dmitry Khlestkin’s prediction
Finals are always very tough to predict, as passion often prevails over common sense. But what can we say about the form of these two teams?
Sevilla have struggled domestically of late, but one expects that they were saving themselves for the Europa League, more so the prospect of the lifting the trophy for the third successive year. Unai Emery’s team have won only one match in the last nine games of the season in La Liga, conceding 19 goals in them.
On the other hand Liverpool couldn’t exactly afford to completely give up on the league, as with each higher place in the standings comes more TV money. Aside from this, Klopp’s Liverpool team chemistry is still far from perfect, and it seems that they’ve used recent league games to try and address this. As a result of such experimentation Liverpool failed to make it into any of the European qualification places. So it really is all or nothing for them with this final.
On the face of things it would be easy to assume that Sevilla are in poor form. But it’s important to note that when they’ve needed to they’ve got the result. They were impressive against Shakhtar in the semis and the only league match that meant anything recently was the Andalusian derby, where Sevilla defeated Betis 2:0. It would be fair to say that they’ve definitely been saving themselves for this final.
Liverpool have also saved their best for this competition, but in both the quarters and semis – against Dortmund and Villarreal respectively – they relied very much on the players in attack, while their defending left something to be desired, particularly early on, remember Dortmund at Anfield? With this in mind, Unai Emery’s side may try to hit Liverpool early on.
Sevilla scored in the first halves of both legs against Shakhtar Donetsk and have more than enough quality in the final third to do so again. A goal in the first 45 minutes for the Spanish side looks well-paid at 2.37.
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