Salzburg vs Sevilla

Stakes are high for Salzburg and Sevilla as they battle it out for progression from UEFA Champions League Group G at the Red Bull Arena.

Despite blowing hot and cold across their opening five Champions League games this season (W2, D1, L2), Salzburg are in a prime position to advance to the competition’s knock-outs for the first time in history. Sat a point clear of third-placed Sevilla, the Austrian heavyweights need to snap a two-game losing streak in Group G to land a sought-after runner-up finish. Warming up for this ‘make or break’ fixture, Salzburg turned a 1-0 HT deficit into a 2-1 win over domestic rivals Hartberg at the weekend to maintain an almost perfect home record in all competitions this season (W11, D1). However, they can ill-afford to rest on their laurels here, having lost three of their last four European home clashes against Spanish opposition. Home and away, they’ve won just once in 11 European games against Spanish teams (D3, L7).

In the meantime, the situation is pretty straightforward for Sevilla here, as anything other than victory would see them fail to make it out of the Champions League group stages. The Spaniards defeated Wolfsburg 2-0 at home last time out to post their first European triumph this season after an underwhelming four-game start (D3, L1). As has been the case in the majority of their La Liga campaign so far, Sevilla’s European fixtures have been anything but fun to watch, with four of their five Group G games featuring under 2.5 total goals. But ‘Los Nervionenses’ can draw confidence from going unbeaten in their previous three European meetings with Salzburg (W2, D1), coincidentally all of which contained precisely two goals. A win here would see Sevilla become only a fifth side to reach the knock-outs after going winless in their first four group matches since the new group stage format was introduced in 2003/04.