Manchester United 'heavy favourites' to win Europa League tie with Sevilla in chaos - Inside Europe
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Published 13/04/2023 at 06:45 GMT
Manchester United take on Sevilla in the quarter-finals of the Europa League, with the first leg taking place this Thursday at Old Trafford. Man Utd go into the game in good form after back-to-back wins against in the Premier League, while Sevilla are in mid-table and have won just one of their last four games. So what has gone wrong at Sevilla? We asked Felix Martin at Eurosport Spain...
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Sevilla have endured a difficult season on and off the pitch. The La Liga club are currently languishing in 13th in the table and have won just one of their last four games.
Sevilla are already onto their third manager this season with Julen Lopetegui and Jorge Sampaoli both departing the Andalucian club. Lopetegui's departure to Wolves saw Sampaoli return to the club last October.
The Argentine coach signed a contract until June 2024, but was sacked in March after a 2-0 loss to Getafe which left them two points above the relegation zone.
Jose Luis Mendilibar was hired during the international break and was tasked to bring stability to the club. But there is also the Europa League to consider with Sevilla still in the competition at the quarter-final stage.
Eurosport Spain's Felix Martin says Sevilla's main problem this season has been their sporting director Monchi.
"I think the best justification [for what has gone wrong] is terrible sports planning," he said.
"On many occasions the sporting director (Monchi) has taken over the media spotlight, acting more important than the coach and the players themselves.
"This caused the departure of Lopetegui and Sampaoli this season, along with players that Monchi himself signed to be important, such as Isco Alarcon but ended up leaving the club due to disagreements with the sporting director himself."
So, what is Sevilla's current manager Mendilibar like and what is his style of football?
"Mendilibar is known as a classic Spanish coach who has mostly coached small clubs," Martin said.
"His time [six years] at Eibar was long and, even with the restrictions he had, fruitful. Mendilibar plays mostly defensive football and one of his features is he is openly against the use of VAR."
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Jose Luis Mendilibar poses with Sevilla's jersey flanked by sporting director Monchi (R) and Sevilla president Jose Castro (L)
Image credit: Getty Images
Sevilla have won a record six UEFA Cup/Europa League titles. However, despite their decorated history in the Europa League, Martin believes Manchester United will have little to worry about over the two legs.
He said: "Sevilla have a romantic relationship with the Europa League, a competition that they have managed to win up to six times, and I imagine that they will want to somehow preserve their "honour" and try to make up for the bad season they are having by having a good performance in the Europa League.
"But I certainly see Manchester United as heavy favourites and the superior side in this tie."
Nevertheless, Felix does think that United need to be wary of the goalscoring threat from their Moroccan striker Youssef En-Nesyri.
"He is Sevilla's 'goal man' with 14 goals so far this season," Martin said.
"His goalscoring ability has caught the attention of Premier League clubs before, so I imagine you'll see more of the Moroccan striker in England soon."
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