Seville’s aspirations to win the European League title for the fifth time, with the final of this season in their stadium, continue with the round of 16 match against West Ham United, one of the representatives of the English Premier League.
• The Spanish team ranked third in Group G of the UEFA Champions League during the autumn season, behind LUSK Lille and Salzburg, and won only one of its six matches and finished with six points, before beating Dinamo Zagreb in the European League qualifications (3). 1 at home, 1-0 away).
• West Ham achieved a comfortable victory in Group H of the European League, as they finished first with one match remaining with 13 points, three points more than second-placed Dinamo Zagreb, which they beat 1-0 in London in the sixth round.
Previous matches
• This is the first meeting between the two clubs in the UEFA competition.
• Seville has faced English teams on 19 previous occasions, setting a record of eight wins, six draws and five defeats. Unbeaten against English opponents in the UEFA Cup and Europa League (W5 D2), they have won one game in their last three matches: 3-1 against Liverpool in the 2016 final, 1-0 against Wolverhampton Wanderers and 2-1 against Manchester United in the quarter-finals and semi-finals in a row in the 2019/20 season.
• However, since then, Sevilla have met Chelsea twice in the UEFA Champions League, drawing 0-0 away from home in the first round of last season and losing 4-0 to Sevilla in the fifth round, the biggest defeat in Europe in the club’s history. .
• West Ham won the previous two European matches against the Spanish opposition, both in the European Cup Winners’ Cup. They beat Real Zaragoza 3-2 on aggregate in the 1964/65 semi-finals victorious (2-1 at home, 1-1 away) and Real Madrid Castilla 6-4 in the first round 1980/81 (1-3). away, 5-1 at home).
Statistics
Seville
• Fourth place in La Liga for the second season in a row under Julen Lopetegui in 2020/21, Seville finished second in its UEFA Champions League group behind final champion Chelsea before losing in the round of 16 to Borussia Dortmund (2-3 at home, 2- 2 away).
• Seville’s current season ended in the Champions League after six matches. They began tying both of their Group G rivals (1-1 at home to Salzburg and outside Wolfsburg, 0-0 at Lille) before losing 1-2 at home to the French champions in the fourth round. A home win over Wolfsburg (2-0) kept him in the race until round six, but a loss at home to Salzburg (1-0) left him third.
• Seville is participating in the round of 16 of the European League for the sixth time (a record). He has lifted the trophy like this in four of his previous six appearances (2013/14, 2014/15 and 2015/16 with Unai Emery as coach and 2019/20 with Lopetegui), as well as winning the UEFA Cup consecutively in 2005/06 and 2006/ 2007. Their only defeats in 24 Europa League matches came away to Porto in the 2010/11 round of 32 (1-2 at home, 0-1 away) and after extra time against Slavia Prague in the 2018/19 round of 16 (2-2 home). , 3-4 away).
• That 2-1 loss to Porto eleven years ago was Sevilla’s last home loss to a non-Spanish opponent in the UEFA Europa League, including the qualifiers. Since then, their record in the competition at the Estadio Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan is 27 wins, five draws and two losses. The setbacks came against other La Liga teams, Betis in the 2013/14 round of 16 and Athletic in the 2015/16 quarter-finals, although Sevilla won both games on penalties.
West Ham
• West Ham finished sixth in the English Premier League 2020/21, making West Ham their first appearance in the group stage of the UEFA competition. In each of their last two continental campaigns, in 2015/2016 and 2016-2017, they were eliminated from the UEFA Europa League qualifiers by Romanian side Astra Giurgiu.
• The East London team won the European Cup Winners’ Cup 1964/65, defeating 1860 Munich 2-0 in the Wembley Final, and will continue to reach the semi-finals, finals and quarter-finals of the same competition in the following 16 years. The furthest they had previously reached was in the UEFA Cup/European League in 1999/2000, when they beat Osijek to reach the second round, losing to Steaua Bucharest (2-0). away, 0-0 at home). In their last appearance in the European Cup, in 2006/2007, they lost in the first round to Italian Palermo (1-0 at home, 0-3 away).
• David Moyes’ team won their first three matches in Group H without conceding: 2-0 at Dinamo, 2-0 at home against Rapid Vienna and 3-0 at home against Genk. They then lost their first points in a 2-2 away draw with the Belgian side, before securing the top spot with a 2-0 win in Vienna.
• West Ham played four European matches without a win (one draw and three defeats) before beating Dinamo in Zagreb in the first round. Rapid’s win in the fifth round was the London club’s third win in their last ten Europa League/UEFA Cup matches outside England (draw two, defeat five), although they have scored in their last six, and scored two in each of their three matches. This season’s away games.
UEFA Europa League Team Changes
Seville
Average: Jesus Corona (Porto), Nemanja Godeli, Anthony Martial (Manchester United, on loan)
a little: Suso, Eric Lamela, Oscar Rodriguez (on loan from Getafe)
West Ham
Average: no one
a little: no one
curiosity
• Anthony Martial joined Sevilla on loan from Manchester United in January. He was a key player in the United team that was eliminated this season from the League Cup by West Ham at Old Trafford (0-1), although his last match for Manchester FC before leaving for Seville was a substitute in a 1-0 win. At home against the “Hammers” on January 22nd.
• Many Sevilla players have played in the English Premier League:
Suso (Liverpool 2012/13)
Jesus Navas (Manchester City 2013-17)
Eric Lamela (Tottenham Hotspur 2013-21)
Ferdinand (Manchester City 2014-17)
Rafa Meer (Wolves 2018-21, Nottingham Forest 2019/20, loan)
• Navas was the English Premier League champion with Manchester City in the 2013/2014 season, he also won the League Cup twice, and the second with Fernando in the 2015/2016 season.
• Martial and his Sevilla teammate Jules Conde and West Ham duo Alphonse Areola and Kurt Zouma were all crowned by France.
• West Ham midfielder Pablo Fornals is a Spanish international and has played in his country for Malaga (2015-2017) and Villarreal (2017-19). Areola, the ‘Hammers’ goalkeeper, was also on loan in Spain at Villarreal (2015/2016) and at Real Madrid (2019/20).
• Ivan Rakitic of Sevilla and Nikola Vlacic of West Ham were teammates in the Croatian national team between 2017 and 2019.
• He was Hammers Moyes coach in Spain with Real Sociedad from November 2014 to November 2015. His only league match against Sevilla was a 4-3 win at home on February 22, 2015.
• The Czech West Ham trio, consisting of Tomasz Sucic, Vladimir Koval and Alex Kral, started in Slavia Prague, which eliminated Seville from the 2018/19 European League in the round of 16. Souček scored a penalty kick in the second leg 3-4 in Prague.
• The Andalusian club is one of two former champions in the European League to compete in the round of 16, along with the 2010/11 winner Porto. Three other participants (Bayer Leverkusen, Eintracht Frankfurt and Galatasaray) also lifted the UEFA Cup, as did Sevilla.
• Seville is competing in the round of 16 of the European League for the sixth time, which is a record. Six other clubs have reached this stage of the competition five times: Valencia, Manchester United, Benfica, Zenit, Villarreal and Dynamo Kyiv.
• This is Sevilla’s 42nd match in the UEFA Europa League knockout stage, equaling the record set by Benfica in the competition.
• West Ham is one of two newcomers to the group stage of the European League 2021/22, the other being Danish champion Brondby. Barcelona, who arrived in the middle of the season, is the third newcomer in this form of the competition.
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