Valencia vs Sevilla Odds & Prediction – La Liga Matchday 21

• Valencia hosts Sevilla on Wednesday, January 19th, in a game with massive title implications
• Second-placed Sevilla trails Real Madrid by just five points with a game in hand
• Read on for betting odds, a full preview and best bets for this La Liga clash

With Real Madrid idle midweek, Sevilla can close to the gap at the top of La Liga to just two points if it can seize all three points from a road trip to Valencia on Wednesday January 19th, with kickoff at 3:30 pm ET. The leading pair are very much clear of the chasing pack, with Sevilla 10 points clear of third-place Real Betis before the latter hosted Alaves on Tuesday, January 18 and won 4-0.

For 10th-placed Valencia, the hope will be to end a run of two straight league defeats, a pair of reverses that ended a creditable stretch of seven league games without defeat. However, the two losses, against first Espanyol and then Real Madrid, saw Los Murciélagos score just twice while conceding six.

Valencia vs Sevilla Odds

Odds as of January 18th at Barstool Sportsbook

Momentum On Sevilla’s Side

Despite their narrow loss against Real Betis in a controversial, two-day Copa del Rey tie last weekend, arguably no team is in better form in league play than the Rojiblancos.

Pursuing a first La Liga league title since 1946, Julen Lopetegui’s team is unbeaten in its last six La Liga matches, winning five and drawing one of those contests.

Winning has very much been a habit for the six-time Europa League champions this season, with its 13 wins through 20 league games allowing it to keep pace with Real Madrid at the La Liga summit.

Net Gain for Sevilla?

While the team’s success has been built on stout defensive action, with Sevilla having conceded a league-low 13 goals – four better than second-best Athletic Club – the majority of its problems lie at the other end of the pitch.

Led by Rafa Mir’s six league goals, the Rojiblancos have scored just 31 goals in La Liga, good for sixth best and well behind Real Madrid’s 45 strikes. Worse still, the team is vastly outperforming its xGoal total of 23.2, so it’s hardly a case of Lopetegui’s team being unlucky in front of goal.

Sevilla’s Squad Depth In Question

While the question of goals is something that is likely to hang over Sevilla for the rest of the season, the club will be under pressure to find some solutions to its starting 11 with a number of players currently at the African Cup of Nations.

Kounde also drops out in warm-up, Acuna only makes the bench. So Lopetegui missing just the 10 players tonight – (also Dimitrovic, Fernando, Suso, Lamela, Delaney, Navas, Bono, Munir, En-Nesyri).

— Dermot Corrigan (@dermotmcorrigan) January 15, 2022

Starting goalkeeper Yassine Bounou, and forwards Munir El Haddadi and Youssef En-Nesyri are currently with Morocco, while regulars Jesus Navas, Erik Lamela, Suso, Thomas Delaney, Fernando and Marko Dmitrovic have all missed time of late through injury. And on top of that, it looks like one of Sevilla’s key defenders, Diego Carlos, may be on his way out of the club too.

🚨 Diego Carlos has informed Sevilla management that he wants to leave the club and join Newcastle. The Magpies have made an offer of around €36m.

(Source: Sky Sport) pic.twitter.com/DlxS8x90lu

— Transfer News Live (@DeadlineDayLive) January 18, 2022

Valencia Looks to Bounce Back

Despite those consecutive La Liga defeats, Jose Bordalas’s squad is still just five points off Atletico Madrid in fourth place, so there’s still plenty of motivation for Valencia to bounce back at the Mestalla here.

However, Sevilla won the first league meeting between the sides this season, triumphing 3-1 at Estadio Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán in September. In fact, Sevilla has routinely come out on top in their league meetings, with Lopetegui’s team winning 13 of their last 20 La Liga matchups.

Valencia vs Sevilla 2021-22 Stats

Bordalas’s COVID-19 Headache

The Valencia manager will have a number of selection conundrums here, with key players such as Thierry Correia, Denis Cheryshev, Maxi Gomez, Daniel Wass and Helder Costa all recently missing time with COVID-19.

⚔️🦇 ALL SET ➡️ #ValenciaSevillaFC pic.twitter.com/UVbGFYgy4K

— Valencia CF (@valenciacf_en) January 18, 2022

On top of that, joint leading goalscorer Carlos Soler is out injured, so the team will need the other joint-top scorer Goncalo Guedes (7) and five-goal scorer Hugo Duro to step up here and help out a club that have scored 32 goals in 20 games so far.

Best bet: Sevilla (+140)