The 2018/19 UEFA Europa League enters the second qualifying round this week and some top European clubs have entered the competition.
One of those clubs is Sevilla and the Spanish team have tasted huge success in the Europa League, so it will be strange to see them in action this early in the tournament. However, having finished 7th in La Liga last season, they have no choice.
Ujpest are their opponents on Thursday night and the Hungarian club finished third in the 2017–18 Nemzeti Bajnoksag I. The match will be played at the atmospheric Estadio Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan.
Sevilla have yet to begin their 2018/19 La Liga campaign and played only three friendly matches ahead of this game. They were held to a 1-1 draw by Bournemouth, defeated Real Murcia 2-0 and lost 1-0 to Benfica.
It’s difficult to take anything from those matches as a guide for this game but Sevilla’s home European record shows they are extremely difficult to beat. Sevilla lost just one of their Champions League home games last season, which was against German giants Bayern Munich.
Sevilla’s home Europa League record is very impressive and they have won ten of their last eleven matches. There have been wins over Feyenoord, Borussia Monchengladbach, Villarreal, Zenit St Petersburg, Fiorentina, Basel and Shakhtar Donetsk.
In addition, Sevilla have won four of their last five home Europa League games by scoring 3 goals.
Ujpest started their new domestic league season last weekend and fell to a 2-0 home defeat against MTK. This was a poor result, especially as MTK only won promotion from the second tier of Hungarian football last season.
The Ujpest players may have had one eye on this game but they do not have a good record this season. Including friendlies and their first round qualifying tie in the Europa League, Ujpest have won only one of their five games.
They played Neftci in the first qualifying round of the Europa League and despite winning the home leg to progress, they lost the first leg 3-1 away from home. Ujpest have never qualified for the group stages of the Europa League.
Looking ahead to the team news and Sevilla could be without several first team players who were involved in the World Cup. Simon Kjaer, Ever Banega, Steven Nzonzi, Gabriel Mercado and Luis Muriel could all miss the match.
Ujpest should be close to full strength having already played one competitive game this season. However, Neboja Vignjevic is likely to start with a more defensive formation than he did on the weekend.
This should be a comfortable start to the new season for Sevilla even without some key players. There is nothing to suggest Ujpest are capable of causing an upset in this match and we could see the record five-time Europa League winners score at least 3 goals in this game.