The last three times that Sevilla had played in the second round of the competition, they had been eliminated by Fenerbache, CSKA Moscow, and Leicester, respectively. Therefore, there was a sense among the Spanish supporters that the Champions League was something beyond their hopes, considering that those three teams were far to be considered favorites to triumph in the competition.
In fact, the three of them went away just in the next round of the tournament. Moreover, Sevilla has not been showing regularity during the season in La Liga, and the last weekend they almost the possibility to reach the next season of the Champions League after the defeat against Valencia, who is currently occupying the fourth place.
And yet, Sevilla did probably their best match of the season playing at Old Trafford. After a first leg where the Spaniards deserved the victory but the match finished 0-0, they outclassed Manchester United to win 1-2 and reached the quarter-finals for the first time in 60 years.
In order to accomplish that difficult task, the Italian manager Montella showed his clear intentions to play an offensive football by dominating the midfield when he lined up Banega, Correa, Sarabia, and Vázquez.
Montella revitalizes the team
After Berizzo was sacked in December of the last year, the Italian coach arrived despite the doubts of the supporters.
Certainly, he had left Milan recently due to bad results, and surely, being 11 points under Valencia and just 2 above Girona plus the defeat against the home rivals Betis by 3-5 are some facts that show the bad season that Sevilla is doing in the domestic competition.
On the other hand, Montella's team has reached the final of Copa del Rey, beating Atletico Madrid in the two matches in the round of the quarter-finals. Precisely, they will play for the trophy against Barcelona in April, the same month when they will face Bayern Munich in the Champions League.
Certainly, another opportunity to keep growing up for a team who, since 2006, has been selling many players and yet has managed to keep their place among the Spanish elite.
The kings of the Europe League
Extremely impressive is the history of Sevilla in the competition, where they have won more trophies than any other team and all of them between 2006 and 2016.
With players such as Kanouté, Fabiano, Alves, Maresca, and Palop, the goalkeeper who impressively scored a header to avoid an early elimination for Sevilla in a competition that eventually the team won, they triumphed in the Uefa Cup in 2006 and 2007.
After that, they had to wait until 2014 to reach again the victory in the competition. It didn't matter that the team had lost all the players who guided them in former years, or that the name of the tournament had been modified. Nonetheless, and during three years in a row, Sevilla became the best team in the history of the competition.
With five titles, the next teams on the list are Juventus, Inter Milan, and Liverpool, all of them with three victories. Precisely, the English suffered a defeat in the final of 2016, though Klopp's team was being clearly superior in the first half and they even scored the first goal of the match.
However, as they have been doing in the Europe League during many years, Sevilla eventually won that final.
And this week, they frustrated another English team, but in the Champions League, where they had barely shone before.
Thus, the next challenge will be Bayern Munich, a team clearly favorite against the Spaniards, who have never reach the semi-finals. But Sevilla is ready to extend their dream.
