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Joey - July 20, 2018
Sevilla vs Benfica
Club Friendlies
Date: Saturday, 21 July 2018
Kick-Off at 17:05 UK / 18:05 CET
Venue: Stadion Letzigrund, Zurich.
Sevilla and Benfica are set to test each other in an Iberian pre-season friendly on Saturday afternoon at Stadion Letzigrund in Zurich. It will be the third game of the off-season for both sides and the final game before the official start of the season for Los Rojiblancos.
Sevilla will play Hungarian Ujpest in the second qualifying round of Europa League on Thursday. They are massive favourites in such tie, but the new head coach Pablo Machin will want to enter that game after a victory over the Portuguese heavyweights here. Machin did a phenomenal job with La Liga debutants Girona last season and it will be very interesting to see him on Sevilla’s bench in the upcoming campaign.
Benfica will travel across the Atlantic after the Sevilla clash as they are to play Borussia Dortmund and Juventus at the International Champions Cup before returning on the European soil to play the Champions league qualifications after finishing the previous term of Primeira Liga runners-up to bitter rivals Porto.
This will be the first head to head clash between the two teams since the UEFA Europa League final back in May 2014.
Sevilla lifted the trophy on penalties as there were no goals in either regular or extra time.
Machin has reasons to be satisfied with what he saw in the first half of the 1-1 draw to AFC Bournemouth seven days ago. He made a number of changes after the break which caused the drop in the rhythm and allowed the Cherries to find the equalizer. The team also looked very well in mid-week when they eased past lower-division real Murcia 0-2 with goals from Ben Yedder and Gual (junior).
Benfica only drew 1-1 to domestic rivals Setubal after beating Serbian Napredak 3-0. Rui Vitoria will definitely need some time to bed in a host of new arrivals. One of them, striker Facundo Ferreyra, found the back of the net in the mentioned draw with Setubal.
We expect a very competitive game between the two teams who are midway through the preparations period. Sevilla left somewhat better impression and this is their final game before the Europa League appearance, meaning we fancy the Spaniards to get away win the win here. The alternative option would be Under 2.5 goals FT.
Sevilla to win @ 2.20
Under 2.5 goals FT @ 2.05.
