Granada vs Sevilla

April 18, 2015
By: Nemanja Lazarevic

Granada sit four points adrift of safety after the poor run of results and they could really use three points from this match in an attempt to keep their survival hopes alive. Meanwhile, Sevilla are locked in the battle for the final Champions League berth with Valencia and they desperately need to win at Estadio Nuevo Los Carmenes as well.

Segunda a reality?

The Pozzo family, who also owns Udinese and Watford in addition to Granada, will have nobody else to blame but themselves if los Rojiblancos suffer relegation at the end of the season. The team only escaped the drop last term by winning on the final day of the La Liga campaign, but rather than reinforcing the squad to ensure that does not happen again, they allowed key player Yacine Brahimi and few more important footballers to leave without recruiting proper replacements. As a result, Granada just could not escape the relegation tussle and everything suggests they will go down at the end of the current campaign. Los Rojiblancos have been largely disappointing of late, winning one of last eleven matches, while they are winless in last five. And while Granada did fairly well at their Estadio Nuevo Los Carmenes, home defeats to Real Madrid and Barcelona in the league and narrow loss to Sevilla in Copa del Rey are enough to suggest they face a tough task when facing Unai Emery’s in-form side. Granada have been leaking goals for fun of late, and with a number of first team regulars either injured or struggling for fitness, the barren run looks set to continue.

Jeison Murillo, Juan Cala, Diego Mainz and Jean-Sylvain Babin are all injury doubts, but Javi Marquez and Ruben Perez should be fit to play. Adrian Colunga and Eddy Silvestre are definitely out.

Sevilla continue to impress

Former Valencia coach Unai Emery did not have an easy job when taking over the reigns at Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan some two years ago as the club had to cut back spending due to serious financial difficulty and could no longer attract world-class players. While selling some key men, los Rojiblancos could only sin inexpensive players, but some shrewd transfer dealings and excellent work of coach Unai Emery allowed the club to even improve the results. After lifting the Europa League title last term, Sevilla have been quite impressive in the competition this season as well, and they made an important step towards the semi-finals by coming from a goal behind to defeat Zenit. Meanwhile, los Rojiblancos also want to secure Champions League qualification through league finish and they definitely appear to be on the right track. Sevilla recorded five league wins in a row before sharing spoils with Barcelona last weekend, and they did well to come from two goals behind and frustrate the La Liga leaders. And with their top 4 rivals Valencia visiting Camp Nou this weekend, los Rojiblancos have a perfect opportunity to become level on points with los Che. All they need to do is defeat struggling Granada on the road.

First choice goalkeeper Beto has finally resumed full training, but Daniel Carrico is out through a knee injury. The likes of Carlos Bacca, Vitolo and Stephane M’Bia should be recalled.

Verdict

Granada will be under tremendous pressure as this could be their last chance to stay close to their relegation rivals and a five-match winless run is unlikely to help. Meanwhile, Sevilla are high on confidence after yet another excellent result and I fully expect them to further improve their Champions League hopes by winning at Estadio Nuevo Los Carmenes.

Top pick: Away win   1.91 (10/11) @ William Hill

Alternative pick 1: Over 2.5 goals   1.91 (10/11) @ Betfred

Alternative pick 2: Sevilla/Sevilla   2.90 (19/10) @ Betfair

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