Liverpool and Sevilla face-off at the St. Jakob-Park, Basel in the finals of UEFA Europa League 2015/16; kick-off at 19:45 UK time, 20:45 European time.
After a disappointing season in respective leagues, Sevilla and Liverpool hope to qualify for next season’s European competition by winning the Europa League title. Liverpool finished 8th and Sevilla 7th in their respective leagues. Both teams want to put behind their disappointing league campaign by winning the title at Basel on Wednesday night.
The defending Champions Sevilla will be looking for the third successive time and looking to equal Bayern Munich’s record of three straight European Champion Clubs’ Cup in 1975/76. Liverpool on the other hand, have won this title three times, in 1973, 1976 and 2001
Form Guide
Liverpool are coming on the back of a 4 match unbeaten run in all competitions. They managed 2 draws and a win in their last three games, with a squad mainly stuffed with young fringe players.
Liverpool have a strong record in this season’s Europa League and they have lost only once, 1-0 at Villarreal in the first leg of the semi-finals. They overall record this season reads 6 wins, 7 draws and 1 loss from 14 matches.
Sevilla are coming on the background of a poor ending to their season as they lost 3 of their last 4 games. The only win during the period was the 3-1 home win against Shakhtar in the second leg of the semifinal.
Sevilla reached Europa League knock-out stage by finishing third in their Champions League group which contained Juventus and Manchester City. They managed just 2 wins then, losing 4 of the 6 matches. Sevilla’s record in the Europa League this season is 5 wins, 2 draws and 1 loss; one of the wins were in penalty shoot-out against Athletic Bilbao.
Liverpool: Team News
The Reds captain Jordan Henderson, together with Danny Ings got some valuable game time since returning from injury in the weekend’s 1-1 draw against West Brom and both are expected to take their place in the substitute bench here.
Mamadou Sakho is still out after a failed drugs test, while Jordan Rossiter and Danny Ward remains sidelined through injury.
Divock Origi is struggling for fitness, but Klopp has plenty of options at the attacking front.
The German tactician is likely to start with a 4-2-3-1 formation and the versatile players in the line-up helps to switch to a 4-3-3 or 4-4-2 when needed.
Liverpool: Predicted Line-up (4-2-3-1)
Mignolet – Clyne, Lovren, Skrtel, Moreno – Can, Milner – Coutinho, Firmino, Lallana – Sturridge.
Sevilla: Team News
Marco Andreolli and Michael Krohn-Dehli are injured and will miss the final against Liverpool.
While Jose Antonio Reyes is struggling for fitness and he is likely to make the bench, if deemed fit in time.
Sevilla: Predicted Line-up (4-2-3-1)
Soria – Mariano, Rami, Carrico, Tremoulinas – Krychowiak, N’Zonzi – Coke, Banega, Vitolo – Gameiro.
Liverpool vs Sevilla: Head-to-Head (h2h)
Liverpool and Sevilla are meeting for the first time ever in a UEFA competition.
Both Liverpool and Sevilla haven’t lost in a UEFA cup final.
Liverpool’s record against Spanish sides in 34 matches so far is 14 wins, 10 draws and 10 losses.
Sevilla had won 3, drawn 2 and lost 3 in 8 matches against English oppositions so far.
Four of the last six titles have been won by Spanish side (Sevilla: 2, Ateltico Madrid: 2), while one by an English side (Chelsea).
Liverpool vs Sevilla: Prediction
Both of the sides involved in the Wednesday’s Europa League final has done impressively well in their matches in the competition so far. Regardless of their league form, either teams go in with an equal chance of winning this prestigious trophy.
There is more significance to this particular final as winning this is the only route for these sides to qualify for the Champions League finals.
But certainly form is with Jurgen Klopp’s side, but the pedigree of winning this tournament from difficult situations is with Unai Emery’s men. LeagueLane’s statistical predictor heavily favours Liverpool for a win in this penultimate game. But I believe Sevilla will be up their right up till the end to make it hard for the Reds.
Nonetheless this will be a very an entertaining affair for the fans and the neutrals alike, and I expect the scores tied at full time, and we might need the help of a penalty shoot-out to separate these two brilliant sides.
My score prediction at full 90 minutes is 2-2.
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