Julen Lopetegui's high-flying Sevilla side will look to keep pace with La Liga's heavyweights when they take on Real Valladolid at the Estadio Nuevo Jose Zorilla on Saturday.
Valladolid, who have not beaten Sevilla in La Liga since 2012, could go a long way in securing their top-flight credentials with three points against the Andalusian outfit.
Match preview
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Following a tough few weeks which saw Sevilla get eliminated from the Copa del Rey and the Champions League, Lopetegui appears to have steadied the ship with back-to-back league wins and a crucial three points against the old enemy Real Betis.
In El Gran Derbi - the 100th top-flight encounter between Betis and Sevilla - Sevilla narrowly beat Manuel Pellegrini's men side 1-0, with Youssef En-Nesyri bagging the only goal of the game in the 27th minute.
Lopetegui's men followed this up with a comfortable 2-0 win over Elche in midweek, with En-Nesyri and Franco Vasquez bagging goals for Los Palanganas.
Yet, in spite of recent form, Saturday's match-up will not be a walk in the park for Los Palanganas, with Valladolid being the compact and defensively resolute outfit they are.
Generally, things look positive for Sevilla, considering Lopetegui's men have won eight of their last 10 league matches - keeping a clean sheet on seven of those occasions - but Lopetegui would be wrong to underestimate Valladolid.
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While relegation rivals such as Alaves and Eibar have struggled for form in recent weeks, Sergio's 16th-placed Valladolid side have effectively played their way into form and their string of positive results speaks for itself.
In their last five league outings, Sergio's men have picked up six points, which is pretty good going from a side that has not climbed higher than 15th in the standings all season.
Against Osasuna last time out, both sides - who play a similar conservative style of football - ultimately struggled to break one another down, with the tie ending 0-0.
Three points for Valladolid could see Sergio's men climb as high as 13th in the table, but such an outcome would be a steep ask against opposition as good as Sevilla.
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Team News
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Lopetegui's side will be augmented by the return of midfield maestro Joan Jordan and defensive rock Diego Carlos, who were both ruled out due to suspension in the victory against Elche.
Defensive midfielder Nemanja Gudelj is expected to deputise for Fernando, who is unlikely to play any part in proceedings due to a groin injury.
Aleix Vidal is also out with a hamstring injury.
Sergio will likely name an unchanged side ahead of this fixture, having settled on an effective starting 11 in recent weeks.
Valladolid will be without Maranhao, Kiko, Raul Garcia and Pablo Hervias for this tie, all of whom are out with injury.
Real Valladolid possible starting lineup:
Roberto; Janko, Fernandez, Yamiq, Olaza; Plano, Mesa, Ruben Alcaraz, Orellana; Guardiola, Weissman
Sevilla possible starting lineup:
Bono; Navas, Kounde, Diego Carlos, Acuna; Jordan, Gudelj, Rakitic; Suso, En-Nesyri, Gomez
We say: Real Valladolid 0-2 Sevilla
Valladolid have done enormously well to climb out of La Liga's drop zone, but taking points off Sevilla may be a step too far for Sergio's men. We are going with a 2-0 for Sevilla, with En-Nesyri no doubt netting another for the club.
Top tip
Francis Buchanan
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 65.38%. A draw had a probability of 21.6% and a win for Real Valladolid had a probability of 13.06%.
The most likely scoreline for a Sevilla win was 0-1 with a probability of 14.64%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 0-2 (13.58%) and 1-2 (9.29%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (10.01%), while for a Real Valladolid win it was 1-0 (5.4%). The actual scoreline of 1-0 was predicted with a 5.4% likelihood.
