Europa League Preview: Sevilla Vs. Roma

Los Palanganas and La Lupa today at 18:00 at MSV-Arena, in Germany, behind closed doors, and the winner will move onto the Europa League Quarterfinals. The winner will face either Olympiacos (GRE) or the Wolves (ENG), depending on the outcome of their match, today at 19:00 GMT. The first leg between Olympiacos and the Wolves ended in a 1-1 draw. 

Surprisingly enough, this will be the first-ever competitive matchup between Sevilla and Roma. This is a Europa League one-off so there was not a first-leg match. The Spaniards have won their last two meetings against Italian sides. To make matters worse, Roma has only won one of its last seven matches against Spanish sides, missing the net in five of those losses. 

Sevilla is a hot team in the Europa League. Since the competition re-branded itself in 2009/10, Sevilla has made it to the quarterfinals, thrice. And, on all three of those campaigns, they actually won the competition - 2013/14, 2014/15, 2015/16, which is an incredible record by any standard.

Roma finished off the year in league play in 5th place, but, they beat Juventus 3-1 in the final match of the season. Roma was on a tear in Serie A action at the end of the year, winning 7 of their last ten, with one draw and two losses. They are a strong team, but they will need to focus on everything they have on stopping a solid Sevilla squad. 

Sevilla finished the year in fourth place in La Liga, after winning five of their last six matches to close out the year. 

Both teams look similar on paper, but Sevilla has the upper hand as they are much more experienced in competition play, giving them an advantage over the Italians. 

Europa League Betting

bet365 Sports finds Sevilla to be the favorites too, posting pre-match odds in their favor at 2.05. Roma is at 3.60, and a draw is listed at 3.50. 

The odds in this articles at the bookmaker mentioned above, were accurate at the time of its writing - August 6, 2020, at 11:00 GMT.