The Depor Aftermath – Sevilla v Stuttgart Champions League Preview

By: Anthony | October 20th, 2009

Champions-02-Ranger-SevillaFC 07 Since I never really had time for a full recap of the weekend’s game, and seeing as we have a Champions League match in a few hours.. why not combine the two?

This is my official recap/preview of Depor and Stuttgart.

There isn’t much to say about the weekend really except for the fact that we were outclassed by a determined Depor side. The boys from A Coruña were in just as good form as us as they have now won 5 straight matches in La Liga and ended our winning streak at the same number.

I don’t want to put us down too much because we definitely did create some significant goal scoring opportunities but are now left to rue poor finishing as to why we couldn’t leave A Coruña with at least a point. Luis Fabiano did not play but we can’t use that as an excuse seeing as the two men who did play have just as much talent. Kanouté and Negredo were fresh off the international break where they recorded goals for their respective countries so it would seem logical that they would be in top form for club as well. Such was not the case but no need to be too hard on our boys because like Manolo said “When we beat Real we didn’t win the title so losing against Depor doesn’t mean we’ve lost it either”. Well put Manolo, well put.

A Juan Rodríguez goal was all it took for Depor to seal the deal and take all three points. The shot was unstoppable and gave Javi Varas who was in for the injured Palop, no chance.

Some positive notes are that Varas played extremely well considering he was standing in for Palop and it’s good to know that we have a backup keeper who can perform potentially just as well as our first choice one. Sánchez also played extremely well at centre back as he came in for Squillaci who was out due to injury. He was just as confident in the centre of defense as when he plays on the right so it is encouraging to see that we have that type of diversity in the squad. Once again Adriano played out of his skin and was probably the most consistent performer that night. He has been immense for us all season and is probably causing Jiménez enough selection headaches but because he can play almost anywhere on the pitch, it should be easy to fit him in the squad. Him and Navas caused havoc up the right flank and even though he’s a natural left footer, he played with such confidence.

Enough about what could have been because it wasn’t. I’m not worried about the loss at all, just disappointed that we couldn’t keep the momentum up after the two week break.

If you’re interested in re-living the loss, well, here it is.

Today we travel to Germany to take on former Bundesliga champions, Stuttgart.

The German side haven’t been impressive at home actually only managing one win so far and that was at the beginning of the Bundesliga season and also to a newly promoted side. They’ve lost their last two fixtures coming into this match with us and although we may have lost to Depor this past weekend, we’re looking to put our season back on track.

The good news for us is that Luis Fabiano and Sébastién Squillaci will both be returning to the squad but unfortunately Andrés Palop won’t. Our first choice keeper is still nursing his injury so Javi Varas will be given the start for the second match running.

There will be three other major absences for us in Renato who picked up a knock on the weekend in A Coruña; Konko who did not travel due to illness (fever) and Álvaro Negredo who randomly developed some mild condition of hypothermia according to the official website.

The absence of Negredo means that Koné will start on the bench as Luis Fabiano and Kanouté lead the starting XI out in the Mercedes-Benz Arena.

A win in Germany would practically see us qualify for the next round and personally I can’t see us coming away with anything less than three points. Sure we have some of our key players out but Stuttgart are seriously lacking confidence at the moment. How can a team win when their own sporting director says that his team “will be in a relegation battle this season”? Confidence starts at the top, and it looks as if they lack it all around at the moment.

¡VAMOS MI SEVILLA!

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