10 May 2023
Juventus are in the Europa League semi-finals for the first time since season 2013/14. The Bianconeri welcome Sevilla to the Allianz Stadium, also in the semi-finals in the same competition nine years ago.
Perhaps no surprise considering that no team has reached the last four of the Europa League more often than the side from Andalusia, who have gone on to lift the trophy after all four of their previous semi-final appearances - most recently in 2020.
Let's find out more about Sevilla's form both domestically and on the European scene this season.
ON THE DOMESTIC FRONT
It has been a turbulent campaign for the side that finished fourth in last season's Spanish top-flight, just three points behind runners-up Barcelona. In the opening seven matchdays this season, Sevilla collected four defeats, as many as over the entire Liga campaign one year ago, and were sitting in fourth bottom place.
The poor start saw the club end the tenure of Julen Lopetegui, who in his previous three seasons had always guided the side to a fourth-place finish. He was also the architect behind the most recent Europa League triumph, against Antonio Conte's Inter in Budepest in 2020.
The replacement for Lopetegui was Jorge Sampaoli. However, the experienced Argentine was unable to definitively pull the team out of the lower half of the table and was in turn replaced during the international break in March by José Mendilibar.
The 62-year-old, who had been in charge of Eibar for almost 250 matches from 2015 to 2021, immediately stamped his personality on the team. In fact, Sevilla have won five of the seven Liga fixtures under Medilibar, including a 3-2 roller-coaster success over Espanyol last weekend, which stretched the advantage over the side in second-bottom place to 10 points.
Sevilla sit in equal 11th place on 41 points after winning 11, drawing eight and losing 13 of the 32 matches played so far.
Adding to Medilibar's positive impact has been his ability to reproduce the team's upturn in form also in the Europa League
IN EUROPE
Sevilla started their European adventure in the Champions League. Like Juventus, the Rojiblancos finished third in the group stage, which saw them pass to the Europa League.
Still under the guidance of Sampaoli, Sevilla overcame PSV Eindhoven 3-2 on aggregate in the play-off to reach the knock-out stage proper, winning the first leg 3-0 at home before losing 2-0 in Holland. In the Round of 16, another impressive home performance gave them a 2-0 advantage over Fenerbahçe. In Istanbul a 1-0 defeat meant a place in the quarter-finals, when it would be Medilibar to guide the side against Manchester United.
In England, the Red Devils took a two goal first-half lead but two late own-goals by the Premier League outfit rewarded Sevilla with a 2-2 draw. Seven days later at the Estadio Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán, Sevilla ran out 3-0 winners for a 5-2 aggregate victory.
Two of the goals on the night were scored by Youssef En-Nesyri, which took his tally in this season's Europa League to three - no teammate has netted more than one. Since joining Sevilla in January 2020, the centre forward has scored 13 goals in European competition, eight more than any other player at the Andalusian club.
