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Roma vs. Sevilla
UEFA Europa League Soccer: Thursday, August 6, 2020 at 12:55 PM EST (Schauinsland-Reisen-Arena)
The Line: Sevilla +130 / Draw +230 / Roma +220 -- O/U: 2.5 Click Here for the Latest Odds
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Sevilla and Roma square off in a single-leg UEFA Europa League round of 16 match from Schauinsland-Reisen-Arena on Thursday afternoon.
Sevilla come into this match riding the wave of confidence after finishing in 4th in the La Liga table and earning a spot in the 2020-21 Champions League. Sevilla did draw five matches after the La Liga restart, but they were also one of the league’s hottest teams, going on an 11-game unbeaten run since the restart, picking up key results over Barcelona and Valencia on the way to securing the 4th position in Spain’s top flight, their first top-4 finish since 2016-17. Lucas Ocampos led Sevilla in scoring with 15 goals across all competitions while Munir El Haddadi had 10 goals across all competitions and Ever Banega had a team-high 8 assists while Jesus Navas had 7 helpers for Sevilla this year. Tomas Vaclik saw the bulk of the workload in goal for Sevilla, conceding 0.99 goals per 90 minutes with 15 clean sheets in 37 appearances across all competitions this season.
Roma on the other hand, finished the Serie A season in 5th, missing out on automatic Champions League for next year by an 8-point margin from 4th place. Roma went on a tear over the final month of the season, picking up 22 of a possible 24 points in eight matches from July 8th to August 1st, taking down Juventus and drawing Inter Milan over that span, which was key in retaining a spot in the European competitions for next year. Edin Dzeko far and away led Roma in the goal-scoring department with 19 goals across all competitions in addition to posting 9 assists while Lorenzo Pellegrini had a team-high 11 assists for Roma across all competitions last season. Pau Lopez saw the bulk of the workload in goal for Roma, conceding 1.31 goals per 90 minutes with 9 clean sheets in 41 appearances across all competitions last season.
This is a tough one to call as it genuinely could go either way. With that said, Sevilla hasn’t taken the pitch competitively in almost three weeks and while some may consider that rest, I’ll switch the E for a U and call it potential rust. And rust is not something you want against a Roma team that has quality from top to bottom in their lineup and really found their scoring groove over the last month of the season. I expect this to be a war, especially with it being one leg, winner take all, but I just feel that Roma has the edge here having last taken the field less than a week ago. I’ll side with Roma on the ML in a game that’s probably best watched instead of bet on.
Chris’s Pick Roma ML +220
AUTHOR: Chris Ruffolo
