SEVILLE ORANGES
Europa League Round of 16, 1st Leg
Sevilla 1 West Ham 0
When the draw for this tie was made, I was poised on my laptop to organise travel to the given location. My belief at the time was now that the Hammers had finally secured a knockout two-legged fixture against one of Europe’s top teams, they would most likely draw Glasgow Rangers, who would then win the tie.
In the event West Ham drew Sevilla, the only team in the tournament to have won it six times. Some have already renamed the trophy the Sevilla Cup. For the record, the last time West Ham were competing in the knockout phase of such a prestigious competition was under Harry Redknapp against Steaua Bucharest back in November 1999.
So back to the quandary at the laptops. There were some astute east end chaps who secured the direct Bournemouth return flights to Malaga, ready to complete their journey to the stadium on the day by rickshaw or on the back of a tame bull rented off some retired matador. All fingers and thumbs, I found myself initially grabbing a bargain £191 return flight with Finnish Airways, with a ten hour stop in Helsinki on each leg, but finally conceded victory to the combined talents of British and Iberian Airways at a cost more or less equivalent to a season ticket next year in the Bobby Moore Upper. (Hoorah)
But what a beautiful place Is Seville. Determined not to spend the majority of my hours there looking at the bottom of a half litre glass, I wandered around the local sites, taking in such wonders as [citations needed]. The breakfast that became the norm over the three days consisted of a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice, a warm croissant just out of the oven and a cup of hot chocolate, the contents with all the consistency of school custard, the skin perfect for dipping torn croissant pieces into.
And so to the match. Getting there comfortably merited the hire of a local taxi. The Stadium holds 40,000 plus, each seat an l-shaped piece of red plastic soldered to the concrete edifice. Sitting on one of these felt supremely unsafe, but standing on the radically stepped rows felt even more insecure, so we found ourselves sitting sensibly. I was already praying that the fans would not opt for the ‘Stand Up If You Love West Ham chant…’
The first half was a pretty even contest with the exception of the fan volume count. It was as if the Seville Ultras knew the concrete structure could only take a limited field of human decibels. Hammers could and maybe should have taken the lead with the best chance of the half when Vlašić finds himself barely a yard from the goal but can only head straight at Bounou, and from the rebound Antonio fails to even get a decent contact on the ball from a similar position and the chance has gone.
The second half is a very different affair, the explosive atmosphere born out of the quaking vibrating Seville crowd who inspire their side to put away their only genuine chance of the game when a Zouma foul for which he is yellow-carded leads to the first set play in a genuinely dangerous position, and Acuña’s brilliant cross field ball picks out Munir El-Haddadi, who half volleys the chance firmly into the corner of the net.
West Ham do manage to reconnoitre, but are unable to fashion a way past a well-organised Sevilla defence, and are left cursing the first half miss, though pleased to only be a goal behind in the tie at the halfway stage.
1 Lucasz Fabianski, 3 Aaron Cresswell, 4 Kurt Zouma, 31 Ben Johnson, 41 Declan Rice (c), 15 Craig Dawson, 8 Pablo Fornals, 10 Manuel Lanzini, 28 Tomas Souček, 9 Michail Antonio, 11 Nikola Vlašić
Substitutes: 22 Saïd Benrahma, 16 Mark Noble
