Sevilla will be aiming to record back-to-back victories in the Champions League when they play host to Russian Premier League side FC Krasnodar in Wednesday's Group E encounter.
The La Liga giants edged last week's clash with Rennes by a 1-0 scoreline, whereas Krasnodar were no match for Chelsea as they lost 4-0 to the Blues on matchday two.
Match preview
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Sevilla are a shadow of their former selves from the back end of last season - the Europa League winners are enduring a torrid spell of form in the Spanish top flight and boast a measly one win from their last six in all competitions.
Julen Lopetegui has now witnessed his side succumb to three defeats on the bounce in La Liga following a 2-1 defeat to Athletic Bilbao on Halloween, with late goals from Iker Muniain and Oihan Sancet propelling Athletic to victory after Youssef En-Nesyri's early opener, and Sevilla also suffered 1-0 losses to Granada and Eibar in the month of October.
However, Las Palanganas are on course to qualify for the knockout stages of the Champions League as they sit level on points with first-placed Chelsea after two matches, with Lopetegui's side playing out a goalless stalemate with Frank Lampard's men before beating Rennes last week.
A Luuk de Jong strike was enough to see off an out-of-form Rennes side on matchday two, and Sevilla ought to be confident of making it two wins from three against a Krasnodar outfit yet to find their feet in Europe's elite competition.
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Chelsea's expensive and highly-rated forwards have struggled to gel at times this season, but Lampard's attacking contingent gave themselves a huge confidence boost as they put four past a lowly Krasnodar last Wednesday.
Callum Hudson-Odoi, Hakim Ziyech, Timo Werner and Christian Pulisic were all on target at the Stadion Krasnodar as the Russian outfit remain without a win in the group stage, and barring a miraculous turnaround, Krasnodar are unlikely to pip either Chelsea or Sevilla to a knockout berth.
As is the case with Sevilla, Murad Musaev's men have only registered one win from their last six in all competitions, and Krasnodar have now lost three on the bounce after being put to the sword by Akhmat Grozny at the weekend, with second-half strikes from Wilker Angel and Ismael Silva enough to overcome the Champions League contenders.
Sevilla and Krasnodar last locked horns in the group stage of the 2018-19 Europa League, with the Russian outfit winning 2-1 at home before Sevilla made amends on their own turf with a 3-0 triumph.
Sevilla Champions League form: DW
Sevilla form (all competitions): DLDLWL
FC Krasnodar Champions League form: WWDL
FC Krasnodar form (all competitions): LWDLLL
Team News
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Sevilla have no major injury concerns to deal with ahead of Wednesday's showdown, but Oussama Idrissi is still sidelined with a knock.
Suso and Sergi Gomez were not involved in Sevilla's defeat to Athletic at the weekend and are doubts for this one as well, but the duo would have struggled to make the team either way.
As far as any potential changes are concerned, Oliver Torres could come back into the Sevilla engine room, while Munir is also pushing to be a part of Lopetegui's front three.
Krasnodar are not so lucky with injuries, though, as Sergey Petrov, Dmitri Stotskiy, Aleksandr Cherkinov and Viktor Claesson all remain on the treatment table.
Aleksey Ionov played the full 90 at the weekend but is ineligible for the Champions League, meaning that Shapi Suleymanov can look forward to a start in Europe.
Remy Cabella is nearing a return after testing positive for coronavirus but Wednesday's trip to Seville may come too soon for the Frenchman.
Sevilla possible starting lineup:
Bono; Navas, Carlos, Kounde, Acuna; Jordan, Fernando, Torres; Ocampos, En-Nesyri, Munir
FC Krasnodar possible starting lineup:
Safonov; Smolnikov, Kaio, Martynovich, Chernov; Gazinskiy, Vilhena; Suleymanov, Olsson, Ramirez; Berg
We say: Sevilla 2-0 FC Krasnodar
Sevilla have the knockout stages firmly in their sights and will be determined to rectify the weekend's mistakes with a win here. Krasnodar are enduring a woeful run of form themselves and have several absentees for matchday three, so we cannot see any other result than a comfortable win for Lopetegui's men.
Top betting tip
Our expert tipster partners at Sporita.com are predicting a home win in this match. Click here to find out what else they are predicting for this game and for more of their tried-and-tested football tips.Home Win:data
Ben Knapton
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Sevilla win with a probability of 64.01%. A draw had a probability of 24.5% and a win for FC Krasnodar had a probability of 11.45%.
The most likely scoreline for a Sevilla win was 1-0 with a probability of 19.76%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-0 (15.58%) and 3-0 (8.2%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 0-0 (12.53%), while for a FC Krasnodar win it was 0-1 (6.26%). The actual scoreline of 3-2 was predicted with a 1% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted that Sevilla would win this match.
