La Liga, Sunday, 20.10.2024 at 21:00
What a confident start! The new season is still young, but FC Barcelona are rightly proud to have got off to such a good start.
The next three-pointer should come on Sunday, against a team that is still winless away from home.
That’s the first reason why I tend to predict a home win in my Barcelona Sevilla betting tip and also bet on over 2.5 goals.
FC Barcelona have obviously hired exactly the right coach! Hansi Flick has only been there a few months and he and his team are already where their fans expect them to be: right at the top.
Had it not been for the strange 2:4 slip-up against Osasuna, the team’s record would be impeccable. They have already won eight times, putting them three points clear of defending champions Real Madrid.
Barca are particularly impressive offensively: Only in the 1-0 win over Getafe have they scored fewer than at least two goals. There are already 28 in total, so no rival can keep up.
Ten of them were scored by Robert Lewandowski alone, who seems to be blossoming under Flick, who was already his coach at FC Bayern. He scored a brace twice and even netted three times once
However, whenever he scores several times, Barcelona are playing away from home. At home, where they still have to play in the Olympic Stadium, he scored three times, which is almost a rarity.
The Catalans can basically do both: make it exciting and win with a goal difference (this was the case four times), but at the same time there were also the results 3:0, 4:1, 5:1 or 7:0.
The team usually decides for itself whether it wants to show its efficient side or whether it wants to go for a shooting party. The performances cannot be praised highly enough, not least because Barca have a constant stream of personnel problems.
There is once again a big question mark behind some of the stars this weekend. Super youngster Lamine Yamal is suffering from a pulled muscle, while Fermin Lopez and Dani Olmo, who are both plagued by muscle injuries, will also be sidelined
Ferran Torres, Ronald Araujo, Marc-Andre ter Stegen and Andreas Christensen will definitely be out. The league leaders seem to have such a strong squad that they can easily compensate for any absentees.
Sevilla FC is not an opponent that has really hurt Barcelona in recent years anyway. They have won their last five matches, with their last defeat in the league coming in October 2015.
Is it a bad omen that we are currently in the same month? Of course, I also want to tell you when Barca last lost a home game against Sevilla in the Primera Division: December 2002!
A certain Louis van Gaal was on the sidelines back then, Carlos Puyol was defending at the back while Patrick Kluivert was scoring goals. It was simply ages ago, as they will know in Sevilla.
At our bookmakers, who offer tax-free betting, the Andalusians are therefore seen as clear underdogs. On average, Sevilla will be traveling with odds of 8.50, while the home side have 1.30 in their favor.
The visitors have made a start that could not have been more mediocre. Three wins, three draws, three defeats, 9:10 goals – it’s unlikely they’ll finish in the top places again in 2024/25.
Of course, nine goals in nine matches doesn’t sound at all positive. At least I can report that the team has been unbeaten for three games. But there’s still a clear line, and it’s somewhat counterproductive for the weekend:
All three victories, and they were very close anyway, were won at home. 1:0 against Getafe, 2:1 against Real Valladolid and another 1:0 in the derby against Betis, while away from home they only managed three easy points from four games.
Close results suit Sevilla like a glove. Only the 2-0 draw against Girona had a two-goal difference, all the others were exciting right up to the last minute.
Is Hansi Flick and FC Barcelona still on course for the title? The performances, especially in the offensive area, are impeccable. I quickly realized that Sevilla are a brutal opponent at home.
The Andalusians, on the other hand, have had a mixed bag of results, with only narrow victories. The problem is that although they have only lost once away from home, they have yet to score three times.
Ultimately, I combine the strength of FC Barcelona this season and in direct comparison and also take into account how well the offense is doing. This results in the following tip:
Barca win by over 2.5 goals!
