Betis and Valencia meet in the first half of the Spanish Cup semifinals. The duel between the two bands will be played on Thursday at 20:00 on Estadio Benito Villamarin.
In the 4th round of the current season in La Liga, the two bands ended a draw without a goal in the Valencia arena, a duel showing no less than 9 yellow cards.
No less than 17 direct matches were played in Sevilla, 7 of which were won by hosts, while “bats” had 8 wins. The last duel was really spectacular, winning for Valencia with 6-3, the game that mattered for the 8th round of the previous season in La Liga.
Quique Setien’s students are still in the fight for the UEFA Champions League, being ranked 6th, 4 points behind the Sevilla rival, the 4th position. In the last round of the championship, they managed to put themselves to the limit in their own field in front of the Atletico Madrid, score 1-0. The only goal of the match was Sergio Canales in penalty 65 minutes.
For this match, host technician will not be able to count Cristian Tello (injured), while Marc Bartra and William Carvalho are uncertain.
Two times the Spanish Cup (1999 and 2008), the band on Mestalla Stadium is in this confrontation after it was very close to producing the weekend surprise in Spain. They managed to lead 2-0 on the New Camp in front of Barcelona, but Lionel Messi’s double returned the balance and also maintained it until the end of the game. That was the second in a row in La Liga where the band prepared by Marcelino García Toral manages to score twice.
Mouctar Diakhaby is suspended for this game, while Jose Gaya’s and Goncalo Guedes’s field trials are uncertain.
Probable teams:
Betis: Robles – Mandi, Bartra, Sidney – Francis, Celso, Guardado, Firpo – Canales, Moron, Lainez;
Valencia: Domenech – Piccini, Garay, Paulista, Gaya – Soler, Parejo, Coquelin, Torres – Moreno, Mina;
Given that it is just the tournament, we expect both bands to be extremely cautious and to be primarily concerned with the defensive phase. Under these circumstances, we are counting on a game where no more than two goals will be scored and in which no more than 10 rounds of the court will be played.
PREDICTION: Both teams to score / YES @ 1.76
