UEFA Europa League: Sevilla vs Lazio preview

UEFA Europa League: Sevilla vs Lazio preview
Sevilla will be looking to defend their one-goal lead over Lazio when they face the Italian side at Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan Stadium tonight in the second leg of their UEFA Europa league last-32 tie. Last week's 1-0 victory for Sevilla in Rome was the first ever meeting between these two sides and it was decided by Wissam Ben Yedder's first-half goal. Lazio have faced Spanish teams in European competitions on nineteen occasions and they managed to win five times, including the 1999 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup against Mallorca. Sevilla have won just four of their eleven matches against Italian teams, and two of them were at home. Sevilla have been struggling on the domestic front lately, but they still seem to have a special strength in the Europa League after having won the competition five times. Their victory over Lazio last week came after three matches without a win in Spain, including the 6-1 thrashing at Barcelona in the Copa del Rey. Moreover, after their match in Rome Sevilla returned to losing in Spain as they got beaten 3-0 by relegation candidates Villarreal at the weekend. Ever Banega is suspended for Wednesday's match, but Maximilian Wober will be able to play after having served his suspension in the first leg. Wissam Ben Yedder and Pablo Sarabia were rested at the weekend and they should return to the starting eleven on Wednesday. Lazio were hoping for a much better result in the first leg, now they will have to perform a half-miracle to qualify for the next round. They have won just one of their three away matches in the group stage of the Europa League and now they have lost their last three matches in this competition. At the weekend they also got beaten in the Serie A, they lost 2-1 at Genoa and dropped to seventh place in the Serie A table. Luis Alberto and Marco Parolo picked up injuries in the first leg and they are sidelined along with Jordan Lukaku and Wallace. Sergej Milinkovic-Savic has missed the last two matches and is a doubt for Wednesday's game. Probable line-ups: Sevilla: Vaclik - Mercado, Kjaer, Gomez - Navas, Mesa, Vazquez, Escudero - Sarabia - A. Silva, Ben Yedder Lazio: Strakosha - Bastos, Acerbi, Radu - Marusic, Romulo, Leiva, Cataldi, Lulic - Correa, Immobile My prediction: Sevilla to win 2-1, Lazio don't seem to be strong enough to get past the Spanish side at the moment. Here are the odds for the match at Bet365: Sevilla win - 1.75 Draw - 3.90 Lazio win - 5.00
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