La Liga Betting Preview: Alaves vs. Sevilla

January 12, 2024

Sevilla are eager to get back to winning ways when they take on Alaves in La Liga action on Friday, 12 January 2024.

Alaves claimed a 4-3 win over Sevilla in their first home match of the campaign in August to end their 10-game winless streak against Los Nervionenses.

It was their first win over Sevilla since a 1-0 victory in January 2018, but Alaves are yet to win at the Estadio Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán in the 21^st century.

Sevilla Betting Preview (+100 at Everygame)

We are halfway through the La Liga season and Sevilla have picked up just 16 points, which has left them down in 16^th place in the standings.

Sevilla finished 12^th in La Liga last season, which proved to be their worst performance since being relegated at the end of the 1999-2000 campaign. The Europa League success was a breath of fresh air but things are not going well after that and it has been another disappointing season so far.

In addition to their awful La Liga campaign, Sevilla also failed to win a game in the Champions League group stage. They finished bottom of Group B and were not able to even secure a spot in the Europa League.

The Andalusian outfit will be eager to turn their season around under new head coach Quique Sánchez Flores, who became the club's third permanent manager of the season. Jose Luis Mendilibar and Diego Alonso have both lost their jobs earlier this term as Sanchez Flores was appointed on 18 December, just two days after Sevilla's devastating 3-0 home defeat to Getafe.

Quique Sánchez Flores won his La Liga debut for Sevilla, which proved to be a 3-0 victory at Granada on December 19, but Los Nervionenses have lost their last two top-flight matches against Atletico Madrid and Athletic Bilbao.

Los Nervionenses started the new calendar year with a 2-0 home loss to top-four hopefuls Athletic Bilbao last Thursday.

Quique Sánchez Flores' side earned a hard-fought 2-1 win at Segunda División side Racing Ferrol on Sunday thanks to a late goal from Juanlu Sanchez.

However, Sevilla cannot really declare themselves back on track until they finally end a drought in La Liga home games that stretches back to September. They have failed to win any of their last six home matches (losing two) - since a 5-1 victory over Almeria, albeit with most of them coming against top-half opposition.

Sevilla will travel to face Getafe in the Copa del Rey last-16 next week but their focus goes on the La Liga campaign.

Youssef En-Nesyri joined Morocco's squad for the Africa Cup of Nations. With that said, Rafa Mir could get a chance to start in En Nesyri's absence and the Spanish forward will be looking for his first goal since he scored at Alaves in August.

Captain Jesus Navas, as well as fellow veteran Ivan Rakitic and the likes of Mariano Díaz and Boubakary Soumaré also return to the squad, with the France U21 midfielder Lucien Agoumé also joining Sevilla's 23-man squad to face Alaves.

Meanwhile, the 24-year-old forward Isaac Romero was promoted to Sevila's main squad as he joined the team training session ahead of Friday night's game against Deportivo Alavés.

Elsewhere, goalkeepers Orjan Nyland and Alfonso Pastor as well as Nemanja Gudelj, Marcos Acuna, Dodi Lukebakio and Erik Lamela are all sidelined for Sevilla.

Alaves Betting Preview (+320 at Everygame)

Having won the Segunda Division play-offs last year, Deportivo Alaves regained their La Liga status. Luis García Plaza's side now sit 15^th in the table on 17 points, just two points over the drop zone.

Thus, any position above the bottom three should be considered a successful campaign at the end.

It has been a positive start to 2024 for Luis Garcia's side. The Blue and Whites will enter this game off the back of an impressive 1-0 win over Real Betis in the Copa del Rey round of 32, while they also held Real Sociedad to a 1-1 draw at the Reale Arena in their last top-flight match.

Alavés themselves sit two points clear of the relegation zone, mostly due to the fact they’ve picked up just two wins (2-5-8) from the last 15 top-flight matches. They were both at home to relegation candidates Granada (3-1) and Almería (1-0), emphasizing the difficult times they’ve had against stronger sides throughout the season.

Yet, Deportivo Alaves ended their five-game winless run against Real Betis (losing four in a row prior to the 1-1 draw earlier this season) when they claimed a 1-0 victory at Mendizorrotza in the Copa del Rey round of 32 last weekend.

Deportivo Alaves are set for a trip to Basque neighbors next week as they'll play Athletic Bilbao in the Copa del Rey last-16 on Tuesday.

Defender Abdel Abqar is unavailable for selection as he also traveled for the Africa Cup of Nations with Morocco.

With Aqbar not available for selection, left-back Ruben Duarte could come into centre-back. The versatile defender captains the squad for most games this season as he missed the trip to Real Sociedad earlier this year due to yellow card accumulation.

Nahuel Tenaglia, who started alongside Rafa Marin at centre-back against Real Sociedad, is also hopeful of keeping his place in the backline.

Uruguayan midfielder Carlos Benavidez, who scored the winner against Real Betis last time out, will also be pushing for a start at Sevilla.

Kike García, who turned 34 in November, is also pushing for a start. The experienced centre-forward, who joined Alaves in August and scored a brace against Sevilla in his first start for the club, is yet to score since that game, though.

Possible Starting Lineups of Sevilla and Deportivo Alaves

Sevilla: Marko Dmitrovic - Sergio Ramos, Loïc Bade, Kike Salas - Adrià Pedrosa, Ivan Rakitic, Djibril Sow, Juanlu - Lucas Ocampos, Rafa Mir, Suso. (3-4-3)

Deportivo Alaves: Antonio Sivera - Javi Lopez, Rafa Marin, Rubén Duarte, Andoni Gorosabel - Jon Guridi, Antonio Blanco, Ander Guevara- Luis Rioja, Samu Omorodion, Álex Sola. (4-3-3)

Spooky Express Betting Prediction

If Celta Vigo and Cadiz both manage to get a result this weekend, it could see both Alaves and Sevilla drop into the relegation zone in the worst case scenario.

Sevilla were already there twelve months ago - they were 19^th in La Liga on 14 January 2023 - following a 2-1 defeat at Girona. However, they started to perform much better in the second half of the campaign, which eventually led to a run of six wins in eight La Liga games between 1 April and mid-May (losing just one of them) and to, of course, the Europa League triumph under José Luis Mendilibar.

With just one win in their last 13 La Liga games (1-6-6), Sevilla will hardly have much better opportunities to gain points at home and we are backing them to edge past Alaves on Friday night.

All in all, Sevilla have won seven of their last nine home matches (7-2-0) against Alaves in La Liga.

Spooky Express Free Play: Sevilla +100 at Everygame for 6/10 Units

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