Across the generations, FC Sevilla is continuing its success story in the Europa League. In the club they are explained with mystical devotion.
Sevilla FC supporters recently moved to the home of the man who started it all ahead of a Europa League home game. Unfortunately, Antonio Puerta is no longer alive, he collapsed on the pitch in 2007, and to this day they rhythmically clap the 16th minute of the game – his shirt number – in the Estadio Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán. And now the fans were singing in his honor in front of the old apartment just around the corner from the stadium. His father was standing upstairs at the window with tears in his eyes.
It all started against Schalke
Puerta scored the only goal in a sizzling altercation with Schalke 04 in extra time in the Uefa Cup semifinals in 2006. It is still considered the goal in Seville that changed the history of the club. How relieved they then won the final against Middlesbrough 4-0 and thus Seville’s first title since the King’s Cup in 1948. A romance took its course that is unparalleled in the European Cup.
Because not only did the title defense follow next year as only the second team in Uefa Cup history. Even after the competition was renamed the Europa League, Sevilla continued to triumph happily. 2014 to 2016 in a row and then again in 2020 at the Corona final tournament in the Rhineland. Makes a total of six titles. No other team has more than three in the second European Cup.
“In the Europa League we transform”
Before the Andalusians, who have won all six European finals, meet Roma coach José Mourinho, who has won all five of their European finals, in Budapest on Wednesday evening (05/31/23), Seville President Pepe Castro says: “Seville has a special feeling for the Europa League. It’s no coincidence that we’re their king because we always rely on them and then we’re capable of anything.” When Europa League games approach, Castro says “Then we transform. The city, the fans, the players – everyone transforms.”
It’s easy for the man to talk because the Europa League saved Seville’s season. Once again and more than ever. By the time they traveled to Manchester United for the first leg of the quarter-finals, they were just above a relegation zone in the league and had reached the third manager. In Manchester, too, they were partially shown, shortly before the end they were 0:2 behind and it could have been twice as high.
If even the goalkeeper scores
But it’s the Europa League – the competition in which goalkeeper Andres Palop forced extra time in the 94th minute of the round of 16 at Shakhtar Donetsk with a header. The competition where, in the same minute in 2014, Stéphane M’bia, also with a header, converted what appeared to be elimination in the semifinals against Valencia into progression. The competition where Sevilla still goes one step further and says about the director Ivan Rakitic: “If it says nobody wants him like we do, then it’s not because some wise guy came up with it.”
In the final minutes of Manchester, Sevilla equalized to make it 2-2 with two of their opponents’ own goals. It was a turning point “very tough season” (Castro). Among other things, United were shot out of the stadium 3-0 in the second leg.
Even newcomers quickly become experts
Sevilla are now showing the intensity that has characterized the club’s style of play for decades. Coach José Luis Mendilibar, a pressing fanatic who supposedly only came as an emergency solution shortly before the quarter-finals, has proven to be the ideal solution. The 62-year-old had never coached in an international competition outside of the abolished Intertoto Cup. But Seville’s history practically eliminates this shortcoming by itself.
Because the myth of Seville and the Europa League lives independently of people and generations. Rakitic, for example, was there for the 2014 title. Captain Jesús Navas in 2006 and 2007 – and then again in 2020. The only constant is sporting director “Monchi” Rodríguez. With his legendary skill in the transfer market, he keeps putting together squads that can take on much richer clubs – like Manchester or then Juventus in the semi-finals.
Only group third? All the better!
In the league there is now a matchday before the end instead of relegation worries in the first two thirds of the season, even the chance of moving into the Conference League. But of course a triumph today against Rome and thus entering the Champions League would be more befitting. Incidentally, Seville is probably the only club where third places in the group are celebrated extensively, because the fans then know: It’s going to the Europa League. And in the end, Seville always wins.