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At 4:30 a.m. Beijing time on January 20, a match in the 21st round of La Liga began to compete, Valencia against Sevilla. Sevilla have a very good record this season, with 13 wins, 5 draws and 2 losses in the first 20 rounds, ranking second, closely following Real Madrid. Sevilla have replaced Barcelona's Atletico madrid as Real Madrid's most formidable title rivals. In their last 6 league games, Sevilla have won 5 wins and 1 draw. However, in the Copa del Rey match four days ago, Sevilla suffered a heavy defeat and lost to Real Betis and was eliminated. This time Sevilla is facing Valencia, the 10th in the league, and the last five meetings between the two sides have been won by Sevilla. This time, Sevilla only pressed a draw and lost the key 2 points.
Sevilla lined up in a 433 formation. Harvey Díaz serves as the starting goalkeeper. Acuña, Requick, Diego Carlos and Montiel are paired at 4 defenders. Rakitic, Fernando and Oliver Torres make up the 3 midfield. The offensive trident combination of Alejandro Gomez, Rafa Mir and Okampos joined forces. Valencia were in a 442 formation, with Douro and Gonzalo Guedes playing as two strikers.
Just 7 minutes into the game, Sevilla received a big gift, Diaca in front of the goal to break the ball and kick the ball into their own goal. The ball gave Sevilla the lead. After that, Gaya picked out a shot to break the goal, but was ruled invalid for offside. In the 21st minute, Ocampos ran into the half with the ball, burst into the box and slammed the ball from an angle to shoot into the near corner, only to be confiscated by the goalkeeper. In the 44th minute, Valencia equalised. Guedes wrapped his header in front of goal and the ball went into the net. At the end of the half, the two sides played in a 1-1 draw.
In the second half, the two sides played more conservatively and failed to create many decent opportunities. The best chance came in the 83rd minute, when Corona faced the attacking goalkeeper and chose to pick a shot, which was deflected. In the 89th minute, Gaia was sent off for bringing down Ocampos, turning two yellows and one red. However, this did not have any impact on the game. In the end, Sevilla drew 1-1 with Valencia. The outcome of this match directly affected the pattern of la Liga title competition. As Sevilla are Real Madrid's biggest rivals for the title. Sevilla conceded two points, which was great news for Real Madrid. Real Madrid are now four points ahead of Sevilla.
In this game, Sevilla had 68% of the ball, 12 shots on goal, 3 shots on target, and scored 1 goal. Valencia, on the other hand, scored 1 goal with 10 shots on goal and 2 shots on target. In the post-match whoscored rating, Rakitic scored a game-high 7.6 points, he delivered four key passes, and one successful pass, but unfortunately he failed to help the team win. The best performer in Valencia was Guedes, who scored 1 goal on 5 shots to score 7.5 points.