Premier League

Man Utd’s troubled history with Sevilla

Man Utd's troubled history with Sevilla

Manchester United have been drawn with Sevilla in the quarter-finals of this season’s UEFA Europa League.

If the Red Devils are to claim European silverware this season, they must go through the most successful team in the history of this competition.

United have only met the Andalusian side in two previous competitive ties, but both had quite seismic ramifications at Old Trafford.

Let’s dive into the short but colourful history between United and Sevilla.

The first meetings between United and Sevilla came in the last 16 of the 2017/18 UEFA Champions League.

After drawing the first leg 0-0 at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan, United were strong favourites to bury their Spanish opponents back in England.

But Sevilla refused to stick to the script. Wissam Ben Yedder scored two late goals to fire the visitors into an unassailable lead. Old Trafford was stunned, and not even a consolation from Romelu Lukaku could lift spirits enough to mount a comeback.

Then-manager Jose Mourinho was expected to lead United into the latter stages of the competition and faced questions in the days following this shock elimination. But in typical Mourinho fashion, he defended himself and turned blame back towards the club in a 12-minute monologue.

You can read the full transcript/watch the madness below to entertain yourself, or scroll all the way down/click the next header on the table of contents to move onto United’s most recent battle with Sevilla. Your call, but it’s well worth a read or listen.

“I say to the fans that the fans are the fans and have the right to their opinions and reactions but there is something that I used to call ‘football heritage’. I don’t know if, I try to translate from my Portuguese, which is almost perfect, to my English, which is far from perfect – ‘football heritage’, what a manager inherits,” Mourinho began.

“It is something like the last time Manchester United won the Champions League, which didn’t happen a lot of times, was in 2008. Since 2011: 2012, out in the group phase, the group was almost the same group as we had this season – Benfica, Basel and [Otelul] Galati from Romania. Out in the group phase.

“In 2013, out at Old Trafford in the last 16, I was on the other bench. In 2014, out in the quarter-final. In 2015, no European football. In 2016, comes back to European football, out in the group phase, goes to Europa League and on the second knockout out of the Europa League. In 2017, play Europa League, win Europa League – with me – and goes back to…

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