Elimination from UEFA Cup and miserable performance at Mallorca despite the draw have sounded the alarm in Seville. Runners-up place is a result, but Seville are inconsistent for a while. Wins over Real in Madrid and Villareal in Seville have created an unreal euphoria. Sampdoria and Mallorca have brought reality back to Andalusia. Osasuna defeated Getafe in the last round making up for all the earlier set-backs scoring a convincing win. This win is getting the team from Pamplona back in business and Seville might be a tough opponent.

This will be a crucial game for Mallorca as the negative run has brought them into the relegation zone. No one can even remember the time when red-black had such a negative spell that was only confirmed with the disastrous defeat by Getafe in Madrid. In the next round they will host excellent Sevilla that used the win in the derby against Villarreal to climb on second place. Andalusians plan to keep the distance behind Barcelona on eight points.

This is one of the most interesting duels of the last round in UEFA Cup group stage. Nothing is yet solved in group C and these two teams haven’t yet secured their place in the knock-out stages. Many will depend on the duel between Stuttgart and Standard as the Belgians are through and if the Germans win they too will move on. In other words, this means that Italians and Spaniards will decide another passenger for the next round. Sampdoria complicated their situation with a draw against Stuttgart at Marassi and they probably have no other choice but to win, while the double winner of this competition in the last three years, Sevilla will move with only one point.

The second most important match of the next round will be the game in Seville where Sevilla and Villarreal meet. Both teams have made the best impression in the last round. Sevilla won by scoring four times against Real Madrid and Villarreal managed to level the score and take a point from Getafe at home.

Sunday derby will take place at Santiago Bernabeu where Real Madrid are hosting Sevilla. Both teams are at the top but they both also suffered a dip in form. Real haven’t been playing good in the league for some time now, and the last loss to Getafe seriously compromised their reputation. Sevilla played last two games at home and both were against direct rivals. The draw with Valencia and convincing loss to Barcelona says that Andalusian side probably are not yet mature for the title. Gonzalez Vazquez will be the referee.

Sevilla have a great opportunity to reach the knockout stages of the UEFA Cup as they will play bottom-placed Partizan at home. The visitors are without any chances after losing all three group games and they do not have much to hope for in this match.

This round’s derby will be highly interesting since, after the excellent run, leaders have finally kneeled down and it happened at home ground. Draw with Getafe in Barcelona was not expected at all, so the outing to Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan will prove if this is the beginning of a crisis or only a single flaw. Seville failed to beat Valencia being the weaker rivals through the entire game. They have now tons of motives to beat the big rivals and to close the gap behind them.

This is going to be very interesting match, as the hosts will be eager to make amends for the heavy defeat from Valencia last weekend. Sevilla were made work hard for the win against Recreativo and after four straight defeats in all competitions, this win helped ease the pressure on the team. Their poor performances don’t give them too much reason for hope against very good Getafe, the team that will create a lot of problems for Sevilla. The match at Alfonso Perez stadium will be officiated by De;gado Ferreiro.

Until two weeks ago, nobody could imagine that Malaga and Valladolid would be the teams that would put an end to Seville’s wins and that the team from the capitol of Andalusia will see two defeats in a row from these two teams. Recreativo again took a draw at home, which isn’t some consolation for the fans of the oldest team. No wins at home leaves them at the bottom of the league standings. This game is a good chance for Seville to win.

Standard will start their group campaign against very good Sevilla side and try to take advantage of Sevilla’s injury problems and win the game. The Spaniards started brightly, having beaten Stuttgart and we have no doubts that they will be looking to win this game as well.