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Football London
Football London
Sport
Andy Ha

Sevilla face selection headache for Chelsea clash after two key players ruled out

Sevilla will take on Chelsea without Jules Kounde after the centre-back tested positive for coronavirus.

It was confirmed last week following his return from France Under-21s duty that the defender had contracted the virus and had to self-isolate.

Kounde's absence is a blow for Sevilla, after the Frenchman played a key role in the La Liga side's Europa League triumph last season.

His displays saw the 21-year-old linked with summer moves to Manchester City and Manchester United, but both clubs opted against making a serious move.

Chelsea v Sevilla: Frank Lampard and Cesar Azpilicueta press conference

The Sevilla squad flew to London on Monday ahead of the clash against Chelsea, with winger Oussama Idrissi also missing out because of an unspecified knock.

Speaking ahead of the game, Chelsea head coach Frank Lampard was asked if playing behind closed doors blurred the fine margins of success in top level competition.

"We lost to Bayern Munich without a fine margin, to be fair, but when you talk about fine details in games, I remember we didn't play particularly well in the first-half but we had a couple of opportunities to score," Lampard said.

"In the second half, Bayern pretty much scored two or three goals in quick succession and made the tie very difficult for us, obviously.

"When you talk about focus and discipline, I am aware that it becomes even more important than in any other football because of the levels of the Champions League.

"That's something that I will put very clearly to the players going into games of this level against opposition like Seville.

"With the lack of fans blurring the fine margins, unfortunately I can't give an answer on that at the minute but something is obviously changing because of the numbers of goals we are seeing in games.

"I think there are contributing factors and I think that the fans not being there is a contributing factor but to what degree in blurring the fine margins, I don't have that answer I am afraid."

Sevilla squad in full: Bono, Vaclik, Alfonso, Jesus Navas, Diego Carlos, Sergi Gomez, Rekik, Escudero, Acuna, Fernando, Gudelj, Jordan, Rakitic, Oliver Torres, Franco Vazquez, Oscar, Ocampos, Suso, Munir, De Jong, En-Nesyri and Carlos Fernandez.

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