Sevilla, the five-time UEFA Europa League / UEFA Cup winner, will face three-time champion Inter in Cologne on Friday.
Inter reporter Paolo Menicucci and Sevilla correspondent give an insight into the two clubs.
Klubfarben
Sevilla: White and red
Inter: Blue and black
Nations represented in the squad
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Sevilla: Argentina, Brazil, Czech Republic, France, Morocco, Netherlands, Serbia
Inter: Argentina, Belgium, Chile, Croatia, Denmark, England, France, Netherlands, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spanoen, Uruguay
Why are they going to win?
Sevilla: Because Seville always wins the Europa League – that’s in the nature of things. They have reached their sixth final this season, the five previous ones were all won by the Andalusians.
Inter: Because I’ve rarely seen such a conspiratorial bunch; for every single Inter player in Antonio Conte’s squad, the team always comes first. Everyone pulls together and has got better and better on the way to the final.
What successes did they celebrate?
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Sevilla: One of the oldest clubs in Spain (its first president was Scots) has won the UEFA Cup and Europa League five times since 2006. The Andalusians have also won the Spanish Royal Cup five times in their club’s history. The stars who once played for Seville include the two Diegos Maradona and Simeone as well as Sergio Ramos and Dani Alves.
Inter: The ‘Big Inter’ under Helenio Herrera won the European Champion Clubs’ Cup twice in the 1960s. The ‘Deutsche Inter’ with Andreas Brehme, Lothar Matthäus and Jürgen Klinsmann won the first of a total of three UEFA Cup titles in the 1990s. In 2009/10, Inter under Josè Mourinho crowned their triple season by winning the UEFA Champions League.
Key player
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Sevilla: Ever Banega – It’s a pleasure to watch the Argentine playmaker. He pulls the strings for Julen Lopetegui’s squad in midfield. He played for Inter in 2016/17 after winning the UEFA Europa League with Sevilla in the previous two seasons.
Inter: Romelu Lukaku – The Belgian international is playing a sensational first season at Inter. A good omen: the great Ronaldo scored 34 goals in his first Inter season and won the 1997/98 UEFA Cup; Lukaku currently has 33 goals and is in the final of the Europa League.
Focus on stars
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Sevilla: The 21-year-old central defender Jules Koundé, who was brought from Bordeaux last summer, is already playing much more mature than his young age would suggest. Local hero Jesús Navas, meanwhile, has reinvented himself as a storming right-back, having made his breakthrough as a winger.
Inter: Lautaro Martínez’s qualities as a goal scorer cannot be overestimated. But Nicolò Barella must also be on the list. “He’s everywhere,” said Lukaku after beating Bayer Leverkusen in the round of 16 about the 23-year-old midfielder, who moved to Inter from Cagliari.
The trainers
Inter: Antonio Conte won the UEFA Cup and the UEFA Champions League as a Juventus player. As a coach, he led the club to three Italian championships. Between 2014 and 2016 he was Italy’s national coach. With Chelsea he won the Premier League. He has been in charge at Inter since 2019.
Sevilla: Julen Lopetegui has also been a trainer in Seville since 2019. As a player and most of the time as a coach, he was in Spain. From 2014 to 2016 he coached Porto before he was responsible for the Spanish national team between 2016 and 2018.
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