Overview
Villarreal entered this match after a 1-1 draw against Mallorca, thereby extending their unbeaten streak in La Liga to 5 matches.
Marcelino's team currently has a great advantage in the race for third place in the rankings, when they are 6 points ahead of Atletico Madrid before the last two rounds of the season.
However, Villarreal still cannot be completely assured because they lost to Atletico in direct head-to-head record. This means Diego Simeone's team still has a chance to take the lead if Villarreal stumbles in the final stage.
In general, Villarreal has definitely won a ticket to the Champions League next season. If they maintain third place, this will be the best achievement of the "Yellow Submarine" since the 2007-2008 season, when they finished La Liga as runners-up.
Villarreal's home form this season is particularly impressive. They have the second best home record in La Liga with 43 points after 17 matches, including 14 wins.
In the first leg at the beginning of the season, Villarreal once defeated Sevilla with a score of 2-1 right at Estadio Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan. Not only that, the yellow shirt team also won all four recent encounters against Los Nervionenses.
However, in terms of overall head-to-head history, Sevilla is still slightly better with 25 wins after 59 encounters, while Villarreal has only won 17 matches.
However, recent form has completely leaned towards the home team. Sevilla has only won 1 in the last 8 matches against Villarreal and is significantly underestimated in this away trip.
Luis Garcia's team entered the match with improved spirit after two consecutive victories against Real Sociedad and Espanyol - results that helped them get closer to their relegation goal.
Currently, Sevilla is 13th in the standings. The gap between them and Getafe's seventh position is only 5 points, but at the same time they are only 3 points ahead of the relegation group, showing that the situation still contains many risks.
Sevilla's final season schedule is also considered very heavy. After the away match at Villarreal's stadium, they will host Real Madrid before closing the season with a match at Celta Vigo's stadium.
Personnel situation
Villarreal will not have the services of Juan Foyth and Pau Cabanes due to injury. However, in general, the "YELLOW Submarine"'s force is still assessed to be in a very good state before welcoming Sevilla.
In attack, Ayoze Perez is likely to continue to hold a starting spot after scoring in the draw with Mallorca in the previous round. The Spanish striker is expected to play alongside Georges Mikautadze in the starting lineup.
Nicolas Pepe is also predicted to return to the main squad, alongside experienced names like Dani Parejo and Pau Navarro.
On the opposite side, Sevilla will not have Marcao for the rest of the season due to injury.
Meanwhile, Isaac Romero and Manu Bueno still have to check their fitness before the coaching staff makes a final decision about their ability to play.
The person expected to lead Sevilla's attack is Akor Adams - the player who just scored the decisive goal in the final minutes of the victory over Espanyol. The 26-year-old striker currently has 9 goals in La Liga this season.
On both wings, Ruben Vargas is likely to continue to be in the starting lineup, while Djibril Sow is considered a noteworthy option for the role of attacking support in the final 1/3 of the field.
Expected lineup:
Tenas, Freeman, Navarro, Veiga, Pedraza, Pepe, Gueye, Parejo, Moleiro, Perez, Mikautadze.
Vlachodimos, Carmona, Castrin, Salas, Suazo, Agoume, Gudelj, Vargas, Sow, Ejuke, Adams.
The match between Villarreal and Sevilla takes place at 0:00 AM on May 14 (Vietnam time).
