Preview: Alaves vs Sevilla - prediction, team news, lineups

La Liga outfits Alaves and Sevilla will battle it out for a place in the last 16 of the 2025-26 Copa del Rey when they go head-to-head at Estadio Mendizorrotza on Wednesday night.

Both sides saw off the threat of lower-league opponents in the previous round, as the hosts made light work of Portugalete, while their visitors narrowly saw off CD Extremadura.

Match preview

Since their last triumph in 2009-10, Sevilla have come close to Spanish Cup glory on several occasions, reaching the final in 2016 and 2018 before falling to Barcelona both times.

However, Matias Almeyda's men suffered a disappointing last-32 exit at the hands of Almeria last season and will be keen to enjoy a deeper run into the latter stages this time around.

After losing three of their four outings in November, Los Nervionenses have kicked off December with two wins and a draw from three outings, leaving them in good spirits ahead of their upcoming involvement.

Sevilla will be wary of coming up short against Alaves, having won just one of the last five meetings between the teams, although that win did come just under three months ago in the most recent encounter.

On the road for a third straight Copa del Rey outing, Wednesday's visitors are set for arguably their most challenging test yet, but will be buoyed by earlier successes on the road against Toledo and Extremadura by a combined score of 6-2.

While Sevilla have previously gone all the way in the Copa del Rey, Alaves are still awaiting their first taste of silverware in this competition, coming closest in the 2017 edition, where they reached the final.

Eduardo Coudet's men also had a November to forget with defeats in each of their final three outings. However, things have since picked up after consecutive wins over Portugalete and Real Sociedad.

Alaves were close to securing a hard-fought point against Real Madrid last time out before Rodrygo struck the winning goal 16 minutes from time, ending an 11-month La Liga goal drought in the process.

Still, Los Albizules will have drawn many positives from their most recent performance as they aim to avoid consecutive defeats in front of their fans for the first time since April.

With 10 goals scored across the last two rounds, only Getafe (14) and Real Betis (11) have netted more times than Wednesday's visitors, who will, however, be expecting a sterner assignment than their 7-0 and 3-0 triumphs over CD Getxo and Portugalete respectively.

Alaves Copa del Rey form:

Alaves form (all competitions):

Sevilla Copa del Rey form:

Sevilla (all competitions):

Team News

Carlos Vicente needed less than a minute to score after coming on as a substitute against Real Madrid, and the forward who recorded a goal and an assist in Alaves' second-round win over Portugalete is expected to start here.

Long-term absentee Facundo Garces remains suspended on the grounds of falsifying documents to play for the Malaysian national team.

Peque and Isaac Romero were suspended for Sevilla's 4-0 thrashing of Oviedo, but are eligible to take part on Wednesday.

However, Cesar Azpilicueta, Adnan Januzaj, Tanguy Nianzou, Orjan Nyland, Gabriel Suazo and Ruben Vargas are down with muscle injuries, while Marcao is set to miss a fourth straight game with a foot issue.

The away side will also be without Kike Salas due to a groin problem, as the defender prepares to miss a Copa del Rey game for the first time this season.

Alaves possible starting lineup:

Sivera; Yusi, Pacheco, Tenaglia, Jonny; Vicente, Blanco, Suarez, Alena; Martinez, Boye

Sevilla possible starting lineup:

Vlachodimos; Oso, Castrin, Gudelj, Cardoso, Carmona; Peque, Mendy, Agoume, Sow; Romero