Soucek’s West Ham want to knock off the Europa League kings. Can he turn it around against Sevilla?

West Ham have a difficult, almost superhuman task ahead of them. It is almost impossible to knock Sevilla out of the Europa League. In the last 5 participations, they have only been eliminated once, which has something to do with Tomas Soucek. That time he was on the winning side of Slavia Prague.

Sevilla is the undisputed king of the Europa League. It has 6 trophies, the most of all. In 2014, 2015, 2016 it completed a hat-trick, which it followed up in the 2019/20 season. Two more trophies were added in 2007 and 2006.

In the 2016/17, 2017/18 and 2020/21 seasons, Sevilla reached the Champions League eighth-finals, thus not playing the Europa League. Thus, in the last five participations, it has reached the final four times and has been knocked out only once, by Slavia Prague. Tomáš Souček, who is currently playing for West Ham, captained the Red and White.

He will want to bring the European king down to his knees, but he has a tough task ahead of him. In the opening match at the Ramón Sanchéz Pizjuán, the Rojiblancos won 1-0 when Munir El Haddadi scored a wonderful half-volley.

But the Hammers are not giving up. They feel they have a chance in the rematch at the Olympic Stadium. And Soucek knows what it’s like to score against Sevilla. He converted a penalty at the start of the second half in Eden two years ago to send Slavia into a 2-1 lead. And not to be outdone by the similarities, Munir El Haddadi equalized again with a beautiful volley.

Sevilla is experienced in European matches, strategist Julén Lopetegui led the Andalusians to the overall triumph the season before last. The same cannot be said for West Ham, many of their players have not even 10 European starts to their name.

Sevilla are one of the biggest favourites to win the competition overall, if West Ham could knock them out, they would be among them too. But can they do what only Slavia have done in recent years?

Source: UEFA