Spanish La Liga club Sevilla will be hosting reigning English Premier League champions Leicester City at the Estadio Ramon Sanchez this Wednesday, February 22nd in a round-of-16 European Champions League clash. The second-leg of this home-and-away series will then be played back in England on Tuesday, March 14th.
Sevilla vs Leicester City Odds – bet365 Soccer Betting Line:
- bet365 currently lists Sevilla as the favorites to win the game at 2/5 with Leicester 15/2 and a draw at 15/4
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Sevilla vs Leicester City – Head to Head:
- This is the first time the two clubs will be meeting in a competitive match.
Sevilla – A Closer Look:
Sevilla is battling with Real Madrid and Barcelona for the La Liga crown this season, but their chances are slim since Madrid has two games in hand. Sevilla ended up second in their group in the first stage of this year’s Champions League competition behind Juventus with three wins, two draws and a loss. They scored seven goals and allowed four against. Sevilla is hoping to reach the quarterfinals for the first time since 1957/58 when the Champions League was known as the European Cup.
They were thumped 10-2 on aggregate by eventual champions Real Madrid back then. This is the third time Sevilla has made the round of 16, but they lost on their previous two occasions against Fenerbahce in 2007/08 and CSKA Moscow in 2009/10. Sevilla won five of their seven home European contests last year along with two defeats. Sevilla’s first home defeat to an English team came in the 2015/16 group stage when Manchester City beat them 3-1.
The Spanish team has played an English opponent just once before in a two-legged knockout series and they managed to beat Tottenham Hotspur 4-3 on aggregate in the UEFA Cup quarterfinals of 2006/07. Sevilla downed Liverpool 3-1 last season’s Europa League Final and beat Middlesbrough 4-0 in the 20005/06 UEFA Cup Final. Gabriel Mercado will miss this match with a suspension. Changes to Sevilla’s Champions League squad see the inclusion of Stevan Jovetic, David Soria and Clement Lenglet with the omission of Hiroshi Kiyotake, Salvatore Sirigu and Timothee Kolodziejczak.
Leicester City – A Closer Look:
Leicester won Group G in the first stage of the competition with four wins, a draw and a loss while scoring seven times and conceding six. However, five of those goals against came in one match in a 5-0 loss to Porto. The team is struggling in the English Premier League though and could be the first club to win the title one season and be relegated the following campaign. They sit in 17th place in their domestic league and are just two points above the relegation zone. They’ve also failed to score in their past six Premier League outings.
Leicester has also made some changes to their Champions League squad as Yohan Benalouane, Molla Wague and Wilfred Ndidi have been added and Luis Hernández, Jeffrey Schlupp, Bartosz Kapustka and Marcin Wasilewski have been released. This is the first time that Leicester have survived in a European campaign beyond Christmas. Leicester won, drew and lost one in their three away matches in the group stage this season with a 3-0 win at Club Brugge, a 0-0 draw at FC Copenhagen and the 5-0 defeat at Porto.
Leicester has played four two-legged European series in the past and won just one of them, which a 7-2 aggregate victory over Glenavon FC in the first round of the 1961/62 European Cup Winners’ Cup. Leicester was knocked out of European competition by Spanish clubs in two of their three previous campaigns. Atletico Madrid knocked them out of the 1961/62 European Cup Winners’ Cup as well as the 1997/98 UEFA Cup.
Sevilla vs Leicester City – Takeaway
Leicester is struggling mightily in the English Premier League and may even be relegated. Their only chance of playing in Europe next season is to win the Champions League this year, which means they have to win or draw in Sevilla or face an unenviable task.
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