England’s Wolverhampton Wanderers started their Europa League journey over a year ago. Now, the team are in the Europa League quarterfinals and just three wins away from winning a first major European trophy.
Standing in Wolverhampton Wanderers’ way are Sevilla. Los Rojiblancos won the Europa League on three occasions in 2014, 2015, and 2016. The club looked fantastic in the round of 16 having been forced to play a one-off game versus Roma.
Julen Lopetegui’s side came through the last 16 with a brilliant 2-0 win over the Italians scoring in both halves. Wolves qualified for the quarterfinals with a 2-1 aggregate win over Olympiacos. The West Midlands club defeated the Greeks 1-0 in the second leg at home to punch their ticket to Germany.
Wolverhampton Wanderers manager Nuno Espirito Santo goes into the fixture without one of his key defenders. Wing-back Jonny Otto suffered an ACL injury in the round of 16 second leg. He will be replaced by Ruben Vinagre in the game versus Sevilla.
Otto isn’t the only big miss for Santo. The manager will be without forward Daniel Podence. The Portugese player is out due to an accumulation of yellow cards. Podence was in fine form and won the penalty for Wolverhampton Wanderers in the second leg versus Olympiacos.
Santo will deploy his side in their usual 3-5-2 formation. The manager will most like place Adama Traore on the right side with Pedro Neto on the left. Diogo Jota could be used on the left side instead to support centre-forward Raul Jimenez.
According to reports in Spain, Nemanja Gudelj is a doubt due to a “virus”. Sevilla’s players will be on “high alert” this week after Atletico Madrid confirmed two individuals with the club tested positive for coronavirus.
Marca has confirmed that one of the two individuals is a player and both persons were sent home to self-isolate. The remaining players will undergo daily testing. It is just a reminder that players from Sevilla could also contract the virus ahead of the final rounds of the competition.
Tuesday night’s game will be one of the biggest matches in the history of Wolverhampton Wanderers. The club will fancy their chances, but Sevilla are serial winners of the competition.
Los Rojiblancos should get past Santo’s side as they finally run out of fuel in the chase for the Europa League trophy. Expect a low-scoring game with Sevilla edging past Wolverhampton Wanderers with a win to nil.