Valencia vs Sevilla preview - Aduriz: We must beat Sevilla

Posted Sunday, March 20, 2011 by PA

Third-placed Valencia will be looking to get back on track against Sevilla after suffering successive defeats for the first time in almost two years.

Los Che had been in fine form up until the start of March but they have suffered two losses recently, being knocked out of the Champions League after losing the second leg of their last-16 tie at Schalke 3-1 and then last weekend being thumped 4-0 at lowly Real Zaragoza.

That mauling at the hands of Zaragoza was Valencia's biggest defeat since 2008, and consigned them to back-to-back losses for the first time since May 2009. It was also their third loss in four games in March having also been defeated 1-0 at home by Barcelona.

Fortunately for Valencia the Zaragoza match did not cost them too dearly in the race for third spot as they still boast a three-point gap over fourth-placed Villarreal, who have hit a slump of their own with just one win in their last seven league games.

However, Valencia know they need to get back to winning ways as soon as possible if they are to keep the Yellow Submarine at bay.

When asked about his side losing two successive matches for the first time in years, striker Aritz Aduriz told AS: "This says a lot about the character of the team, that we've always lifted ourselves after a setback.

"It's important that we clear our heads and we need to beat Sevilla."

He added: "We're fine, but we`ve had two tough blows, especially the elimination from the Champions League which hurt us a lot because we were really confident of having another tie to enjoy.

"This is football and you need to lift yourselves. We couldn't against Zaragoza but we need to forget that as soon as possible and think that we have 10 finals left to get into the Champions League again."

Sevilla go into the match in improved form over the last few weeks, picking up two wins and two draws from five matches to leave them in eighth spot, three points behind sixth place.

One of those draws came against league leaders Barca and defender Federico Fazio believes if his side can repeat their performance in that game they will greatly increase their chances of getting a European berth.

"If we play like we did against Barcelona, we will win a lot of matches," he said.