Sevilla is the only team in history to win the UEFA Europa League, formerly the UEFA Cup, two years in-a-row.
Yet, who remembers the Europa League Champions?
Teams such as Sevilla would prefer to play and perform in Europe’s main competition, the UEFA Champions League (UCL), a lot more than playing in the continent’s second cup competition.
Not only do they receive more money for qualifying and playing in the UCL, but they also receive more coverage worldwide. They can attract better players, and as a result, their quality of football should also improve.
POPULAR ARTICLES
Three major talking points – Chelsea vs PSG
MLS – What We Learned – Matchday 1 [VIDEO]
EPL – Outside90’s Team of the Week – Matchday 29
In the 2014-15 La Liga competition, Sevilla finished fifth, only two points behind Atletico Madrid in third.
Finishing fifth would have meant ‘only’ qualifying for Europa. However, due to UEFA’s rule changes in 2014, the UEL winners from the previous season, in this case Sevilla, automatically qualified for the 2015-16 Champions League.
Before these changes, Sevilla had not played in the showcase tournament since 2010.
For Sevilla, a team of quality in the last few seasons in both Spain and Europe, reaching the next stage of qualifying for the Champions League through domestic exploits, either automatically or through qualifiers, is crucial.
In the 2015-16 installment, they played in what could be called the competition’s ‘Group of Death’ beside Juventus, Manchester City and Borussia Monchengladbach, finishing in third place on six points.
Does this result represent a need for the Europa League at all? If the winner cannot get out of their group in the Champions League, albeit a tough one, then should they be granted automatic qualification?
Nearing the business point of the 2015-16 La Liga season, Sevilla are not where they would like to be. They currently sit in fifth place, eight points behind Villarreal in fourth. Just behind them, Athletic Bilbao is on 44 points and Celta Vigo has 42.
Their next two games are against Villarreal at home, and Real Madrid at the Bernabau. Tough.
Until this season, they could have been compared to England’s Tottenham Spurs. They are both teams who could play in the Champions League but would fail at that final step, having to settle for Europa as a result.
Surely Sevilla’s target at the start of the season would have been to finish in the top four and qualify for the continent’s premier competition without relying on winning the UEL. However, with only 10 games left in the season, it is going to take a fantastic run of form for them to challenge and go past Villarreal to claim fourth.
Sevilla are currently in what could be called as ‘ok’ form having won two of their last five games, drawing a further two. The only loss came after an extremely entertaining game against Barcelona where los Nervionenses did indeed show they are competitive with the best on their day.
Yet, being competitive ‘on the day’ is hard when playing in La Liga, the Copa del Rey, Champions League and now Europa.
Fortunately for them, the final of the Copa Del Rey against Barcelona is not being played until the 23rd of May 2016, 10 days after La Liga concludes.
Sevilla will want to win the Europa League, and what a feat that would be if they succeed. They certainly can and have shown they are specialists in Cup finals over the last few seasons. They will have to get past some tough teams still in the Europa League though, and this seems like a competition worth keeping an eye on compared to previous seasons. In their domestic competition, they need to bring some of that ability to win cup games and convert that into league results if they want to challenge for fourth.
For a team that has had good success in their last few seasons, they do n0t want to settle for what they have now and will be hoping to improve to start challenging the heavyweights of Spain and Europe.
What are your thoughts? Let us know by dropping a comment below via our Facebook comment box. Make sure you follow us on Twitter @Outside90 and like us on Facebook.
